Only a few hours after the EU foreign ministers agreed on new sanctions against Iran, the government there announced measures. Several European politicians will no longer be allowed to enter the country or attend meetings with Iranian officials. The list published by the Iranian Foreign Ministry also includes three prominent German politicians: the Green Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth, the former Defense Minister and ex-CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and the long-standing President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert.
The trigger for the European sanctions was another execution of a demonstrator in Iran. At a meeting in Brussels, the foreign ministers of the EU countries unanimously condemned the violence used by security forces and called for the death penalty to be suspended immediately. The foreign ministers also clearly condemned Russia’s military support through the delivery of Iranian combat drones. Several militaries and companies believed to be involved in this trade are now being added to the EU sanctions list.
Roth: Iran just wants to distract
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry gave the reason for the Iranian counter-reaction: The “interference in Iran’s internal affairs” in connection with the protests could not go unanswered. “Tehran will not be intimidated by threats and political pressure,” he said, according to the state-sponsored Iranian news agency Isna.
Minister of State for Culture Roth – the only politician still active among those sanctioned – said on the other hand that they continued to show solidarity with the protesters. The sole aim of the new list of sanctions is to distract from the real problems in Iran, “the justified and increasingly strong protests against the corrupt, oppressive rule and to show the massive dissatisfaction of the people with the regime as a result of the work of foreign politicians”. .