“European Council’s Iran Sanctions against Int’l Regulations”

Senior parliamentarian Valiollah Nanvakenari strongly blasted the European Council for extending its sanctions against Iran for another year, saying the cruel sanctions of Europe and even of the US are imposed under false pretexts like human rights violations.

None of them are in accordance with international law and even human morality, he noted, according to a Farsi report by ICANA.

“Unfortunately, the US and some European countries have been cruel to some other countries over the past years because with the victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, these countries saw their own interests at stake.”

He rejected the imposition of sanctions on the pretext of human rights situation, adding that “history reminds us that the West helped Iraq in the course of the imposed war against Iran and even provided Saddam with chemical weapons.”

He emphasised that these sanctions were imposed by the European Council against Iran for the first time in 2011 and has been renewed every year since then.

It should be asked whether the anti-Iran sanctions within the past forty years have been effectual that they have renewed them, he added.

“We must tread the right path and be alert in dealing with these actions. The nation and the authorities must teach a lesson to the West through solidarity and resistance,” underlined Nanvakenari.

The lawmaker, who sits on the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, also lashed out at a statement issued by the European Council imposing travel ban and assets freeze against 82 Iranians and an institution.

The Council of the European Union voted unanimously on Thursday to extend its sanctions against Iran for one more year because of human rights violations.

The sanctions, now extended until 13 April 2019, include “asset freeze and visa bans for individuals and entities responsible for grave human rights violations ban on exports to Iran of equipment which might be used for internal repression and of equipment for monitoring telecommunications.”

The EU initially adopted sanctions against Iran in 2006, following a series of UN Security Council Resolutions aimed at the country’s nuclear program. Those sanctions were extended in 2011 in response to “human rights violations”.

While the EU was unified in renewing the sanctions, there exist divisions among member states on additional sanctions. In the past month the UK, Germany, and France have been pushing for additional sanctions including on military equipment, while Italy, Austria, and Spain do not want to upset commercial relationships with Iran.