EU imposes new Iran sanctions, won’t brand Guards ‘terrorists’ for now

Reuters -Jan 23rd 2023

by Bert H Meijer & Ingrid Melander

BRUSSELS, Jan 23 (Reuters) – The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on more than 30 Iranian officials and organisations, including units of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, blaming them for a “brutal” crackdown on protesters and other human rights abuses.

The United States and Britain have also issued new sanctions against Iran, reflecting a deterioration in the West’s already dire relations with Tehran in recent months.

Foreign ministers from the EU’s 27 member countries agreed the measures at a meeting in Brussels.

The sanctions targeted units and senior officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) across Iran, including in Sunni-populated areas where the state crackdown has been intense, a list published in the EU’s Official Journal showed.

Some EU governments and the European Parliament have made clear they want the IRGC as a whole added to the bloc’s list of terrorist organisations. But the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, noted that could only happen if a court in an EU country determined the IRGC was guilty of terrorism.