Response to violence: EU sanctions against Iran’s vice squad

Due to the ongoing violence against demonstrators in Iran, the EU has launched another sanctions package. Those responsible, including the so-called moral police, are banned from entering the country. Tehran threatens “immediate” reactions.

Because of the violence against demonstrators in Iran, the foreign ministers of the European Union have decided on sanctions against the so-called moral police and other responsible persons in the country. The list of sanctions published in the Official Journal of the EU includes eleven responsible persons and four organizations, including the cyber unit of the Revolutionary Guards in addition to the moral police. Entry bans are imposed on all those affected, and their assets in the EU are frozen.

The background to the EU sanctions is the recent action by the authorities in Iran against protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini. The young woman died on September 16. Three days earlier, the moral police arrested Amini on charges of not wearing her headscarf in accordance with regulations.

Baerbock threatens further sanctions

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had already announced the move on the fringes of the EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg. The EU does not turn a blind eye to the brutal violence in Iran, she said. Young people, children, women – many parts of the population simply wanted to live in peace and freedom, without a headscarf, they wanted to sing and dance. And for that, women in Iran would be beaten up and even killed.

Baerbock did not rule out further steps against those responsible in Iran: “If this regime continues to hit its people like this, then there will be further sanctions.”

The EU is demanding maximum transparency from the Iranian leadership, for example with regard to the allegations against the police or the devastating fire in a large prison in Tehran. Denmark’s Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said: “For me it is important that we punish those who are responsible for the atrocities against the people of Iran, against the young people who are peacefully demonstrating for their fundamental rights. It is terrible what we are seeing this brutality is just unbelievable, so the world needs to react.”

The situation in Iran has not been the same since 1978, said Austria’s Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg. People wanted their freedoms. “That should be supported by us as the European Union.” It was clear that there could be “not no reaction” to the suppression. Additional sanctions against eleven people and four organizations “may not surprise or frighten Iran,” said Schallenberg. “But it’s a clear political signal from us that we don’t appreciate the way the moral guards and the Revolutionary Guards act and won’t simply accept it.”

Iran announces “immediate response”.

Iran had already announced a reaction in the event of sanctions. Tehran will “decide and act immediately according to the decisions and measures” of the EU member states,” said a spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry. “If they initiate new sanctions, this action is definitely unconstructive and irrational.”