Alwaght- The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday announced that several institutions and individuals from the European Union have been included in Tehran’s blacklist of sanctions due to their support for terrorism, violence and hate-mongering as well as counter human rights measures against the Iranian nation.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry once in a statement released on Wednesday strongly rejected and condemned the EU’s recent sanctions targeting Iranian individuals and entities over unfounded accusations that constitute a clear example of interference in Iran’s domestic affairs.
“The ministry hereby announces sanctions against a number of individuals and entities within the EU due to their “deliberate actions in support of terrorism and terrorist groups, encouraging and inciting terrorism, violence, and hatred, which has caused riots, violence, terrorist acts, and human rights violations against the people of Iran,” the statement read.
According to the Fars News Agency (FNA), the sanctioned entities include the so-called Friends of Free Iran, the International Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ), Stop the Bomb, Deutsche Welle Persian, RFI Persian, International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, Karl Kolb Co., and Rhein Bayern Fahrzeugbau Co.
The blacklisted individuals are president of the International Committee in Search of Justice Aljo Vidal Quadras, co-chairs of the Friends of Free Iran Javier Zarzalejos and Milan Azver, members of the European Parliament Charlier Weimers, Jan Zahradil, Helmot Geuking and Hermann Tertsch, member of the National Assembly of France Meyer Habib, mayor of France’s Villepinte Matine Valleton, mayor of Paris first district Jean-Francois Legaret, current and former editors-in-chief of Germany’s Bild newspaper Johannes Boieand and Alexandra Wurzbach, the FNA further reported.
The sanctioned individuals will be denied entry to Iran visas and their properties in Iran will be seized by the government.
The anti-EU sanctions come a weeks after Tehran sanctions a number of British individuals and organizations for their hand in the riots in the country and acts of terrorism, and hate promotion.
Tehran's decision came a week after EU foreign ministers decided to levy sanctions against 11 Iranian individuals and four entities over the country's response to the recent unrest that followed the death of a young Iranian woman in police custody. Protests erupted in several cities across Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who fainted at a police station in mid-September and days later was pronounced dead at a hospital. The demonstrations soon turned violent.
A set of terrorist groups, apparantly aided by the West, conducted violence in Iran during the protests.
European governments has been providing protection, diplomatic cover, and funding to a number of groups Iran blacklisted as terrorist entities since decades, including Komala, MKO, and Pejak.