The European Union Foreign Affairs Council Monday decided to impose sanctions on eight additional individuals and one entity responsible for serious human rights violations in Iran.
The Council which is meeting in Luxembourg in a statement said it is sanctioning Ariantel, an Iranian mobile service provider, which contributed to the telecommunications surveillance architecture mapped out by the Iranian government to quash dissent and critical voices in Iran.
New listings also include lawmakers in the Iranian Parliament, members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the IRCG Cooperative Foundation, which is the body responsible for managing the IRGC?’s investments and in that framework responsible for funnelling money into the “regime?’s brutal repression,” it said.
EU sanctions now apply to a total of 211 individuals and 35 entities in Iran.
They consist of an asset freeze, a travel ban to the EU and a prohibition to make funds or economic resources available to those listed. A ban on exports to Iran of equipment which might be used for internal repression and of equipment for monitoring telecommunications is also in place.
The European Union and its member states “urge the Iranian authorities to stop any form of violent crackdown against peaceful protests, cease their resort to arbitrary detentions as a means of silencing critical voices, and release all those unjustly detained,” said the statement.
Today?’s package of sanctions on Iran complements the previous six packages adopted by the Council on 17 October, 14 November, and 12 December 2022, 23 January, 20 February and 20 March 2023.
Source: Kuwait News Agency
