Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Iran since the death of the young Kurd Mahsa Amini two months ago. They express their protest against the government and are violently crushed. Politicians emphasize that the EU must work harder than before to free the country.
In the face of escalating violence in Iran, top politicians across all parties have called for tougher EU action against the country’s government. “Following the first sanctions decisions, further international isolation must now follow,” said the chairman of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, to the Funke newspapers. “The idea of ??freedom cannot be tamed in Iran either – neither with repression nor with violence,” said the deputy chairman of the CSU. Many people in Iran are fed up “of being told how to live,” he added.
Green leader Omid Nouripur also called for tougher action by the EU. “An important step is that the EU classifies groups that oppress and harass their own population as terrorist organizations, above all the Iranian Revolutionary Guards,” Nouripour told the Funke newspapers. “This allows us to freeze their assets in the EU and hit them directly,” he said.
Younger people in Iran in particular “see that there are no prospects for them under this regime. People are rightly not satisfied with promises of gradual reforms, they want a free Iran,” said Nouripour, emphasizing: “Right now they have to we continue to watch, support and act.”
The protests in Iran have not stopped since the death of the young Kurd Mahsa Amini a good two months ago. The leadership in Tehran is forcibly crushing them. According to the Iran Human Rights (IHR) organization, 378 people have been killed so far, including 47 children.