EU, UK sanction several Iranian officials, an entity over “rights violation”

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said on Monday that it has imposed sanctions on five members on the Board of Directors of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Co-operative Foundation.

The IRGC Cooperative Foundation is an economic conglomerate established by senior IRGC officials to manage the group’s investments and presence in numerous sectors of the Iranian economy, including manufacturing and construction.

Britain also sanctioned the commander of the Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada Base of the IRGC Ground Force, Ahmad Zolqadr, and Alireza Heidarnia, the commander of the IRGC for Alborz Province, over the claim of gross human rights violations.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly claimed that those sanctioned are responsible for funneling money into the protest that sparked following the death of a young Iranian woman in September.

These sanctions constitute an asset freeze and UK travel ban on the individuals concerned.

Demonstrations over the death of a 22-year-old Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, who fainted at a police station on September 16 and was later pronounced dead at a Tehran hospital, erupted first in her native province of Kordestan and later in several cities, including the capital Tehran.

What started as peaceful protests took a violent turn after unruly protesters fatally attacked policemen and indulged in vandalism against public property in several cities.

The UK, the EU and the United States have in recent months issued several rounds of sanctions against Iran over allegations of human rights violation after Amini’s death.

Later on Monday, the EU announced that it is imposing restrictive measures on additional eight individuals and one entity, claiming that they were responsible for serious human rights violations.

According to a statement by the Council of Europe, the new bans include members of the judiciary, a member of the Iranian parliament, and a senior official of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).

The statement added that the bloc’s “restrictive measures now apply to a total of 204 individuals and 34 entities.”

The measures include an asset freeze, a travel ban to the EU and a prohibition to make funds or economic resources available to those listed.

In a fifth round of sanctions over what the EU claimed to be Tehran’s crackdown on the recent riots, the EU Council said last month that it has decided to impose restrictive measures on additional 32 Iranian individuals and two entities.

In response, Iran has imposed sanctions on dozens of European Union and British officials and entities over their support and instigation of the recent deadly riots in the country over their meddlesome statements about the Islamic Republic’s internal developments and support for terror.

Iran’s intelligence community has announced several countries, including the US and the UK, have used their spy and propaganda apparatuses to provoke violent riots in the country.