{"id":238028,"date":"2021-04-15T08:27:29","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T13:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=238028"},"modified":"2023-02-01T04:58:52","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T03:58:52","slug":"new-eu-sanctions-on-iran-must-lead-to-broader-reckoning-on-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-resistance\/new-eu-sanctions-on-iran-must-lead-to-broader-reckoning-on-human-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"New EU Sanctions on Iran Must Lead To Broader Reckoning On Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"reuters-eu-flags\"<\/p>\n

On Monday, the European Union imposed new sanctions on eight figures in the Iranian regime\u2019s security establishment, including the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC<\/a>). The announcement of those sanctions explained that Hossein Salami \u201cbears responsibility for serious human rights violations\u201d on account of his participation in planning sessions that led to the use of deadly force against a nationwide protest in November 2019.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), welcomed the EU\u2019s decision and \u201creiterated the need to designate the entire IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence, prosecute and expel their agents and mercenaries, and revoke mercenaries\u2019 citizenship and refugee status in Europe. Based on the experience of the past 40 years, Mrs. Rajavi<\/a> said, these agents are not political refugees or ordinary citizens, but operatives and spies of the terrorist Quds Force and the clerical regime\u2019s Intelligence Ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The severity of the crackdown on the November 2019 uprising was apparent from the very beginning. Even before the protests had been fully repressed, Amnesty International reported that the IRGC had opened fire on peaceful activists and had been shooting to kill. Within weeks, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI<\/a>) reported that the death toll from those shootings was above 1,500 \u2013 a figure that was later confirmed by Reuters, based on three sources inside the regime\u2019s Interior Ministry.<\/p>\n

Publicly, Tehran has been trying to dismiss these accounts, albeit unconvincingly. The Interior Ministry\u2019s Security Deputy recently tried to revive a talking point that acknowledged fatal clashes between protesters and security forces but put the overall death toll at less than 250 while also denying responsibility for a portion of them. But that talking point first emerged more than six months after the killings took place, and the regime did not explain why it took so long to calculate such a small number of casualties.
\nThe new sanctions demonstrate that the EU is unwilling to take the regime\u2019s narratives seriously where human rights are concerned. Although these sanctions are very important, the European Union should target the regime\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani as the highest authorities involved in oppressing the Iranian people in November 2019 uprising.<\/p>\n

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Iran Protests: Nationwide Uprising in Iran- November 2019<\/div><\/div>
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