The EU issued a communique on Monday to add up eight authorities and three bodies to its sanctions list based on a baseless claim of violation of human rights. In the communique that one copy of it has been published on the European Council’s website, the European officials wrote the bans are related to unrest in Iran in November 2019.
Saeed Khatibzadeh, Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, condemned the measure by the EU and described it as invalid, noting that the ministry put a hold on negotiations over human rights as well as other coordination on terrorism, drug smuggling and refugees.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, warned that Europe should know they are not in a superior moral position and they cannot preach the world, adding that the Europeans are not in a position to impose sanctions on Iranian officials.
***Violation of international law
The new EU sanctions violate the Charter of the United Nations, which stipulates that interfering in internal affairs of other countries is forbidden. The move also can be an indication of the Europeans’ intention to affect the balance in nuclear negotiations with Iran in favor of the Western side.
The EU’s decision to ban travel and freeze assets of Iranian officials is in contradiction to four resolutions of the Human Rights Commission, which describe trade restrictions, siege, business ban and freezing of assets as a crime.
In general, such sanctions can be depicted as violation of law doctrines as well as basic principles of international relations consisting in the UN Chapter, statement on relationships and amicable cooperation among governments, Resolution 2625 of the UN General Assembly, the legal principles of sovereign equality, prohibition of use of force, the determination of destiny by people of each country, non-interfering in internal and external affairs of other countries, and the principle of complying international commitments with goodwill.
***Putting pressure on Iran in JCPOA talks
The new sanctions also can be considered as a preplanned attempt to put pressure on Iran in order to change the way of negotiations on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Now that the Western side acknowledges that the so-called maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic bore no fruit for the US and its allies, such a sanction policy indicates an explicit or implicit agreement between Europe and the US to put more pressures on Iran in order to push Tehran to change its position.
***Sanctions hindering international cooperation
One of the main destructive aspects of the European sanctions is that they destroy the atmosphere of cooperation, which was endorsed by Resolution 2625 of the United Nations General Assembly on October 24, 1970.
The European sanctions on Iran will tarnish the spirit of international collaborations between the two sides.
The Islamic Republic of Iran pursues the way of resolving international disputes through the way of interaction. The negative aftermaths of such a move against the Islamic Republic are on the shoulder of the European decision-makers.
1424
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