Tehran, February 22. Iran has announced new sanctions against 36 individuals and entities from the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom in response to recent restrictive measures taken by Brussels.
Among those sanctioned is the French Minister for Equality, Isabelle Rome; Belgian MEP Frédérique Ries; German politician Renata Alt or Commodore Adrian Fryer, in charge of the British fleet in the Middle East, the Iranian Foreign Ministry reported last night.
The sanctions prohibit the persons concerned from entering Iran, order the confiscation of their property and assets on Iranian soil and the blocking of their bank accounts in the country.
The sanctions are a “reciprocal” response to restrictive measures approved by the EU last Monday for the suppression of protests sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini in September.
The EU then imposed sanctions against 32 Iranian individuals and two entities, including Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Esmaeili Mohammad Medhi, and Minister of Education, Nouri Yousef.
The protests started due to Amini’s death, but quickly evolved and started calling for an end to the Islamic Republic, shouting “woman, life, freedom”.
Iranian authorities responded with a heavy police crackdown that resulted in nearly 500 deaths and nearly 20,000 arrests in the protests, for which four protesters were executed, including one in public.
The protests lost considerable momentum after the executions of the four demonstrators and in recent weeks there have been virtually no demonstrations in the streets of Iran. ECE
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