Iran: new EU sanctions expected

The European Union (EU) will decree new sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran on Monday, according to various sources, including Reuters and EFE. The new measures against the Persian country will come after the European Parliament encouraged the EU bloc to classify the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation. 

According to these sources, the EU will add 37 new individual items to its sanctions against the Persian country. "We will adopt the fourth package of sanctions against Iran on Monday and we believe we should already start working on the fifth to include the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation," said one of the sources, an EU diplomat, as also reported by Euronews.  

This is the fourth round of EU sanctions against Iran since popular protests against the Ayatollahs' government erupted last September following the death of young Mahsa Amini during her arrest by the Morality Police on charges of wearing the Islamic headscarf incorrectly. 

nsiders said that when the bloc's Foreign Ministers meet on Monday, 37 new names will be blacklisted for human rights violations. The sanctions would prevent a number of Iranian officials and members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard from travelling to the EU and freeze their assets in Europe. 

However, it is reported that the Revolutionary Guard (Iran's elite army corps) would not yet be punished.  

The European Parliament has pressed the EU even harder to list the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation, but there is every indication that Foreign Ministers will not follow through on this at their next meeting in Brussels on Monday. There are "legal" impediments to such a procedure, as these sources pointed out. "If this is done, it has to be legally sound and that is being discussed right now. But it will not be ready by Monday," a diplomat told EFE news agency. 

The European Parliament called on European leaders to extend individual sanctions (travel bans and asset freezes) on a number of Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi, Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri and all members of the Iranian parliament for encouraging the violent crackdown on opponents and protesters that has left around 500 people dead and nearly 20,000 detained. 

Previous rounds of sanctions have involved freezing assets and banning the Iranian authorities concerned from entering EU territory.  

In response, the Iranian parliament also threatened to designate the armies of European countries as terrorist groups if the EU does the same with the Revolutionary Guard. In fact, Iran defends the institution of the IRGC as the world's largest anti-terrorist organisation. 

This expected new sanctions package could become very relevant given the resumption of talks between the ayatollahs' regime and the EU to maintain the nuclear pact signed at the time to control Iran's atomic programme. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was adopted in 2015 and was put in place to monitor Iran's nuclear development and limit it to civilian purposes only, in exchange for political and economic benefits. The US government of Donald Trump pulled out of the pact in 2018, alleging non-compliance by the Persian country on issues such as uranium enrichment, and imposed harsh economic sanctions, including those related to the oil trade, the main source of financing for the Asian country. In recent months, however, negotiations have resumed, especially between the European countries involved and Iran, while the United States, now under Joe Biden's government, continues to maintain a sceptical stance towards Iran's intentions.