Iran's flag. (Credit: AFP/File)
Belgium — European Union member states agreed to sanction Iran following its brutal crackdown on protests over Mahsa Amini’s death, diplomats confirmed. Foreign ministers are expected to implement the sanctions on Monday.
"Now is the time to sanction those responsible ... for the repression of women," European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday. “This shocking violence cannot stay unanswered."
Four EU diplomats told AFP that a political agreement was reached Wednesday on the sanctions and that a meeting of foreign ministers will be held in Luxembourg next Monday to officialize them.
There were no details on the impending sanctions, but the United States, Britain and Canada have already independently targeted security branches of the Iranian regime. The United States and Britain imposed sanctions on Iran's so-called morality police, who arrested 22-year-old Amini last month. Amini, whose Kurdish first name was Jina, later died in police custody.
Her family, the protesters in Iran, Western officials and rights groups have all called her death a “killing.” Iran denied this claim and said she died of natural causes related to a childhood surgery.
Last week, Canada said it will permanently deny entry to more than 10,000 members of the Iranian regime, including members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is leading the ongoing crackdown. EU lawmakers have been calling to put Iranian officials, including those linked to the morality police, on a blacklist prohibiting travel into Europe and the freezing of any assets in the EU.
The EU imposed sanctions on Iran in 2011 for human rights violations, with more measures added in 2012 to halt the sale of any equipment the regime might use to repress or electronically spy on the Iranian population.
The latest sanctions land at a delicate moment, given that the EU plays a coordinating role in talks aimed at reviving a 2015 deal that curbed Iran’s nuclear activities. Those talks are in an impasse, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said.