More than 100 people have died in protests in Iran. The EU countries now want to adopt sanctions that will hit the regime in Tehran hard: assets are to be frozen and freedom of travel restricted.
According to diplomats, EU countries have agreed on new sanctions against Iran over the violent crackdown on demonstrators after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. As reported in the afternoon from diplomatic circles, the EU foreign ministers are to officially decide on the sanctions on Monday at a meeting in Luxembourg. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had previously said it was “time” to impose sanctions on those responsible “for the oppression of women” in Iran.
The protests in Iran were triggered by the death of the young Kurd Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old died in Tehran on September 16 after being arrested there three days earlier by the vice squad on charges of not wearing her headscarf in accordance with regulations.
Hundreds of people have been arrested during the nationwide protests, which the Iranian authorities are cracking down on with violence. According to human rights groups, at least 108 people have been killed so far, including 28 children.
According to a “Spiegel” report, the initiative for sanctions goes back to proposals from France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic. These should concern 16 individuals, organizations or bodies. It is primarily about “representatives of the Iranian repressive apparatus” and “political representatives”, as the magazine further reported. France is therefore pushing to freeze the assets of the Iranian power elite across the EU and restrict freedom of travel.
At the end of September, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on Twitter that she was doing “everything within the EU to introduce sanctions against those in Iran who beat women to death and shoot demonstrators in the name of religion.” The USA had already announced further sanctions against Tehran, without giving any details.
One of the richest people in Iran’s power elite is revolutionary leader Ali Khamenei. Referring to a Reuters research, the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” reported that Khamenei owns a fund called Setad, which is based on the expropriation of real estate and was worth around $95 billion in 2013. According to the FAZ, the fund is likely to be much larger today.
