The European Union adds several more Iranians to its sanctions list
The European Union is imposing sanctions on several more Iranian officials for human rights violations. They will be banned from entering the EU and all their assets will be frozen. The names of the individuals will be announced next week at a later date.
Three EU diplomats said the names of several individuals the bloc plans to sanction will be announced soon. They did not provide names or details.
On Wednesday (March 31), the European Union will extend sanctions against more than 80 Iranians who are subject to sanctions.
The European Union, like the United States, has imposed sanctions against a number of Iranians since 2011 for human rights violations.
The European Union is determined to take a more assertive approach to human rights abuses around the world. This month, the bloc imposed sanctions on 11 individuals from China, North Korea, Libya and Russia.
An EU diplomat said in this regard: "Those responsible for human rights violations must know that their behavior will have consequences for them."
The European Union has repeatedly protested violations of human rights standards in Iran, including the arrest of political opponents and restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression.
The last time the European Union announced sanctions against a number of Iranians was in 2013.
In September last year, Britain, Germany, and France took an unprecedented step by summoning Iran’s ambassadors to protest the Islamic Republic’s human rights abuses. The French foreign minister stated that Iran was “seriously and consistently” violating the fundamentals of human rights.
On March 9, Javed Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, presented an official document highlighting violations of basic human rights, such as: the high number of death sentences, executions of juveniles, the use of torture to extract confessions from prisoners, and the permissibility of forced marriage of underage girls.
The Islamic Republic has always denied these accusations and said that it does not believe in "Western human rights."
European Union diplomats have said that the announcement of sanctions against Iranian citizens is unrelated to the issues surrounding the nuclear agreement (JCPOA).
Source: DW
