Washington/Brussels: The United States, European Union and United Kingdom have imposed fresh sanctions on Tehran, stepping up pressure on Iran over its crackdown on protests.
The actions, which reflect a deterioration in the West’s already dire relations with Tehran in recent months, are the latest response to Iran’s deadly clampdown on unrest after the death of young Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in morality police custody in September.
The protests by Iranians from all walks of life mark one of the boldest challenges to the ruling theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran accuses Western powers of fomenting the unrest, which security forces have met with deadly violence.
The United States targeted the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and senior officials in its action, which imposed sanctions on the IRGC Cooperative Foundation and five of its board members, Deputy Minister of Intelligence and Security Naser Rashedi and four senior IRGC commanders in Iran.
The US Treasury Department said the action targets a “key economic pillar of the IRGC, which funds much of the regime’s brutal suppression; as well as senior security officials coordinating Tehran’s crackdown at the national and provincial levels”.
The European Union imposed sanctions on more than 30 Iranian officials and organisations, including units of the Revolutionary Guards, blaming them for a “brutal” crackdown on protesters and other human rights abuses.
Read the article by Daphne Psaledakis and Gabriela Baczynska in The Age.