{"id":9008,"date":"2021-05-02T15:35:32","date_gmt":"2021-05-02T12:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=9008"},"modified":"2021-05-04T15:44:51","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T12:44:51","slug":"implications-of-eu-sanctions-on-iran-amid-ongoing-vienna-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/reports\/implications-of-eu-sanctions-on-iran-amid-ongoing-vienna-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Implications of EU Sanctions on Iran Amid Ongoing Vienna Talks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The European Union (EU) recently imposed<\/a> sanctions  targeting three Iranian state entities and eight security officials, including Commander-in-Chief of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)  Hossein Salami, over Iran\u2019s violent crackdown following  nationwide protests<\/a>  against fuel price hikes in 2019. As per the UN, at least 304 people were killed during the crackdown, however, according to the US special representative to Iran, nearly 1,000 people may have been killed<\/a> because of the brutality unleashed by the Iranian government. The sanctions coincide with talks in Vienna which aim to revive the nuclear deal.  The Iranian government has called<\/a> the sanctions an \u201cillegal move\u201d and a \u201cshameful act.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Iran\u2019s past record of human rights abuses and international law violations, the EU hesitated to impose travel bans and freeze Iranian assets as it did not want to anger Tehran to preserve the nuclear deal.   However, the recent EU decision against Iran is its first since 2013 and reflects a tougher position regarding Iran\u2019s ongoing human rights abuses.  Commenting on the situation an EU diplomat said<\/a>, \u201cThose responsible for serious violations must know there are consequences.\u201d However, a European diplomat confirmed<\/a> that the \u201csanctions had been in the pipeline for a long time\u201d and it was decided to announce the sanctions despite ongoing nuclear talks in Vienna. In response to the EU sanctions, Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said<\/a> that Iran is \u201csuspending all human rights talks and cooperation resulting from these talks with the EU, especially in (the fields of) terrorism, drugs, and refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU sanctions come at a crucial time amid the ongoing Vienna talks where both sides have made several demands and Tehran continues to refuse to cease its uranium enrichment unless the United States lifts its sanctions on the country.  Furthermore, in a response to the recent attack on Iran\u2019s key nuclear facility in Natanz, Tehran has started to enrich<\/a> uranium  up to 60 percent which will speed up Iran\u2019s nuclear break-out time. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has also threatened<\/a> that Iran is capable of \u201cenriching uranium up to 90 percent if they wanted to.\u201d  As per some reports<\/a>, the recent attack at the Natanz nuclear facility resulted in damaging several thousand machines and assets despite conflicting accounts given by Iranian officials. Iran\u2019s recent actions clearly indicate Tehran\u2019s age-old strategy of threatening to militarize its nuclear capabilities  in order to put pressure on the United States while facing \u201cserious disagreements<\/a>\u201d at the Vienna talks.  Russia also responded to the recent EU sanctions and said that they could undermine any progress made at the Vienna talks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his recent visit to Tehran said<\/a>, \u201cif there is a lack of coordination in the EU, and the right-hand doesn\u2019t know what the left hand is doing, it is simply a disaster.\u201d He also added, \u201cbut if this decision is deliberately made in the midst of the negotiations that are continuing in Vienna to save the JCPOA, then it is no longer a problem, it\u2019s already a mistake, which, as you know, is worse than a crime.\u201d Lavrov also insisted that the United States should lift the sanctions on Iran including those targeting foreign firms that cooperate with Tehran. According to Lavrov, this step is critical if Washington wants to revive the nuclear deal. Iran in recent years has strengthened its ties with Moscow as a strategic counterweight to the United States. Russia supports Tehran to ensure that the United States does not have the upper hand to stipulate terms and conditions to revive the nuclear deal.  Moscow has rejected the Biden administration\u2019s proposal of \u201cJCPOA plus\u201d calling<\/a> it \u201cwrong and inconvenient.\u201d  Russia believes that only a full return to Security Council Resolution 2231<\/a> without any changes remains the \u201cway out of the current situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u2019s human rights abuses and international law violations remain a serious concern for the international community. Despite this concern, recent responses<\/a> from Iranian officials reveal Tehran\u2019s lack of intent to improve  the country\u2019s human rights conditions, especially amid worsening<\/a> state-society relations. In the current context, Iran is likely to resort to more aggression and threats in the coming days to create a tense atmosphere while talks continue in Vienna to pressurize the United States to lift the sanctions and return to the 2015 nuclear deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Union (EU) recently imposed sanctions targeting three Iranian state entities and eight security officials, including Commander-in-Chief of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami, over Iran\u2019s violent crackdown following nationwide protests against fuel price hikes in 2019. As per the UN, at least 304 people were killed during the crackdown, however, according to the US special representative to Iran, nearly 1,000 people may have been killed because of the brutality unleashed by the Iranian government. The sanctions coincide with talks in Vienna which aim to revive the nuclear deal. The Iranian government has called the sanctions an \u201cillegal move\u201d and a \u201cshameful act.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9009,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5791,12,1773,5792],"class_list":["post-9008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports","tag-eu-sanctions","tag-iran","tag-vienna-convention","tag-vienna-talks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9008"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9015,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008\/revisions\/9015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}