Iran Slams Extension of EU Sanctions by Another Year
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi denounced a recent decision by the European Union (EU) to extend its anti-Tehran sanctions as a politically motivated move and said the EU has no true understanding of the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic.
“Unfortunately, the EU has proven that it has no realistic and true understanding of the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Qassemi said in a statement on Wednesday in response to the EU move to extend its sanctions against Iran until April 2018 over alleged claims of "serious human rights violations”.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran condemns the repetitive and improper trend of double-standard and politically-motivated approaches and instrumental use of human rights by the EU, including the extension of unilateral sanctions under the pretext of human rights violations (in Iran), which is a failed and ineffective policy,” he noted.
In a statement on Tuesday, the 28-member bloc extended by a year its travel ban and an asset freeze on 82 Iranian people and one entity, as well as a ban on exports to Iran of equipment for monitoring telecommunications and other gear, according to Reuters.
It added that the blacklisted names would be published on Wednesday in the EU's Official Journal.
The EU imposed the restrictions on Iran for the first time in 2011.
Back in August, Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani proposed that the Islamic Republic and Europe can begin discussions about human rights, provided that Iran would also have the chance to question the shortcomings of Europeans regarding human rights.
“I suggest that the (Judiciary’s) Human Rights Council, the Foreign Ministry and the Supreme National Security Council pave the way for talks with European countries (on human rights),” Ayatollah Amoli Larijani said at the time.
He underlined that the US must be excluded from any such discussions because Washington is “only after deception.”
