Tehran Vows Reciprocal Sanctions on European Persons, Entities

By Staff, Agencies

Iran strongly condemned the new sanctions imposed against a number of Iranian persons and entities by the European Union over the country's handling of recent riots, vowing reciprocal sanctions against European persons and entities.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani made the remarks late Monday after an EU foreign ministerial session decided to levy sanctions against 11 Iranian individuals and four entities over the country's response to the riots that followed the death of a young Iranian woman in police custody.

The sanctions targeted a section of Iran’s police, the Basij volunteer forces and the cyber division of the country’s Islamic Revolution Guards [IRG]. The bloc also listed Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Issa Zarepour for the internet shutdown. The coercive measures include travel bans and asset freezes.

Kanaani said the EU decision amounted to violation of international law and constituted a brazen example of interference in the Islamic Republic's internal affairs.

"It is profoundly regrettable that special political motivations as well as reliance on unfounded and distorted information and allegations cooked up by enemies of the Iranian nation and infamous media outlets affiliated with them have been taken as the basis for such a wrong and unconstructive decision," the spokesman said.

The bloc adopted the coercive economic measures over the Islamic Republic's response to the foreign-backed riots that followed the death of a young Iranian woman in police custody.

Protests over the death of Mahsa Amini erupted first in her native province of Kordestan and later in several cities, including the capital Tehran. Amini fainted at a police station and was pronounced dead days later on September 16 at a Tehran hospital. However, some extremist elements derailed the protests and incited violence against security forces.

An investigative report by the Iranian Parliament has concluded that Amini’s death was not linked to physical assault and battery.

According to the report, the young woman was neither assaulted during her transfer to the police center in Tehran, where she fell into a coma, nor hit while being held there.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Kanaani said the new EU sanctions indicate "continuation of [the bloc's] ill-intentioned approach" towards the Islamic Republic and its instrumental use of human rights to achieve certain political goals. The decision, he added, was therefore fundamentally "flawed and null and void."

The spokesman finally dismissed all the accusations leveled against the Iranian persons and entities, saying, "Reciprocal sanctions targeting relevant European persons and entities will be soon adopted and announced."

Earlier on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian also censured the EU's sanctions, calling them "superfluous" and "an unconstructive act out of miscalculation based on widespread disinformation."

He emphasized that "riots and vandalism are not tolerated anywhere; Iran is no exception."