Iran sanctions Europeans for criticizing crackdown on protests

[ad_1]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran announced sanctions on more than 30 European individuals and entities on Wednesday, describing the move as a response to recent European sanctions against officials linked to the nationwide crackdown on protests.

Among those targeted by the sanctions are the attorney general and chief of staff of the British army, several European parliamentarians and European military officials. Also targeted are French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy and three senior executives from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which recently published a series of cartoons ridiculing Iranian clerical leaders.

The sanctions would ban travel to Iran and allow authorities to freeze bank accounts and confiscate property in Iran. Those targeted are unlikely to have either, making the move largely symbolic.

The move came two days after the European Union expanded its sanctions to target dozens of Iranian officials and organizations linked to the violent crackdown on recent protests. He refrained from labeling Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group despite a call from the European Parliament.

Iran has long been subject to heavy US and European sanctions linked to its disputed nuclear program and support for regional militant groups. Nuclear sanctions were lifted under a landmark 2015 deal with world powers, but President Donald Trump reinstated them after unilaterally pulling the United States out of the deal.

Iranians have taken to the streets since September following the death of a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by morality police for allegedly breaking Iran’s strict Islamic dress code.

The protests have called for the overthrow of Iran’s theocracy and pose one of the biggest challenges to ruling clerics since the 1979 revolution that brought them to power. Rights groups say security forces used live ammunition, birdfire and beatings to disperse protests.

At least 527 protesters have been killed and more than 19,500 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has been following the unrest closely. Iranian authorities have not provided an official tally of those killed or detained and have blamed the protests and violence on foreign powers without providing evidence.

Protesters say they are fed up after decades of social and political repression by a clerical leadership they see as corrupt and incompetent.

[ad_2]