EU extends sanctions on Iran in response to ‘human rights violations’

Responding to “serious human rights violations,” the European Union has extended by a year existing sanctions regarding financial and travel restrictions, as well as restricting EU members from selling Iran telecommunications monitoring equipment that can be used for internal repression.

The sanctions, which were set to run out this week, were extended by the EU until 13 April 2018 as “measures responding to serious human rights violations” in Iran, Iraqi Kurdish news site Rudaw reported.

EU nations shall not issue visas to and shall freeze the assets of “82 people and one entity” involved in repression and human rights violations in Iran, according to a statement by the 28-member union issued on Tuesday.

Additionally, the EU forbids its member states from exporting to Iran “equipment which might be used for internal repression and of equipment for monitoring telecommunications.”

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Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international non-governmental organisation, released its 2016-2017 report in January, accusing Iran of perpetrating human rights violations against ethnic and religious minorities including Ahwazi Arabs, the Sunni Baluchi people, Azeri Turks and Sunni Kurds.

The report stated that the Iranian intelligence apparatus “heavily” monitored its citizens’ activities on the internet.

HRW said:

Hundreds of social media users, in particular on the Telegram messaging application and Instagram have been summoned or arrested by the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] for commenting on controversial issues, including fashion.

HRW also criticised an Iranian law that was passed and implemented from June 2016 that stipulated that insulting and “defaming” public officials when “committed to achieve reforms and not intended to target the system, are considered political crimes.”

“The government restricted cultural as well as political activities among the country’s Azeri, Kurdish, Arab, and Baluch minorities,” the report claimed, also highlighting the executions of Sunni religious and political figures “after they criticized the executions of at least 20 individuals on August 2.”

In January 2016, the EU lifted all economic and financial EU sanctions against Iran related to their controversial nuclear programme after a deal championed by the former US administration of Barack Obama. The landmark agreement was criticised extensively by regional powers as well as experts and analysts who said that the deal signed by the P5+1, known as the JCPOA, would embolden Iranian activities and support for sectarian Shia jihadist and terrorist organisations.

Although Tehran claimed that Iran’s nuclear ambitions were solely for the peaceful pursuit of energy production, this was widely believed to be an attempt to acquire atomic weapons.Incumbent Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has in the past stated that his government will work for broader national and religious rights in the country. Critics have accused the president of sidelining the largely impoverished Kurdish, Arab and Baluchi areas in the government’s fiscal planning, contributing to further deterioration of educational and economic opportunities.