BERLIN: Germany’s foreign minister is calling for European Union entry bans and asset freezes against those responsible for what she described as brutal repression against anti-government protesters in Iran.
The most sustained protests in years against Iran’s theocracy are now in their fourth week. They erupted Sept. 17 after the burial of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who died in the custody of Iran’s feared morality police. Amini had been detained for an alleged violation of strict Islamic dress codes for women.
Since then, protests spread across the country and have been met by a fierce crackdown, in which dozens are estimated to have been killed and hundreds arrested.
“Those who beat up women and girls on the street, carry off people who want nothing other than to live freely, arrest them arbitrarily and sentence them to death stand on the wrong side of history,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was quoted as telling Sunday’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
“We will ensure that the EU imposes entry bans on those responsible for this brutal repression and freezes their assets in the EU,” she added. “We say to people in Iran: We stand and remain by your side.”
Baerbock didn’t name any specific individuals or organizations.
On Thursday, EU lawmakers approved a resolution calling for sanctions against those responsible for the death of Amini and the subsequent crackdown.
Germany, along with fellow EU member France, is among the nations that are part of a 2015 agreement with Iran to address concerns over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and have been attempting to revive the deal.
Talks on the deal have languished but if it’s reinstated, the agreement would provide sanctions relief that would help strengthen the Iranian government.
On Sunday, videos on Iranian social media appeared to show students staging a protest on the campus of Al-Zahra University in Tehran, a day after students chanted against Iran’s president during a visit there.
Protests erupted in cities across Iran on Saturday. In Tehran’s bazaar, traditionally a stronghold of Iran’s rulers, a crowd set fire to a police kiosk. Later that evening, anti-government marches drew a large crowd in the capital’s central Naziabad area, social media posts showed.
Facing persistent unrest, authorities have turned to targeting prominent Iranians who have expressed support for the protests.
The semi-official ILNA news agency reported that Iranian officials seized the passports of Homayoun SHajjarian, a prominent singer, and Sahar Dolatshahi, an actress, after the pair returned from a concert tour in Australia on Saturday. The passports were taken at Tehran’s international airport, the news agency said.
SHajjarian had expressed support for the protesters during his foreign tour. During a Sept. 13 concert, a large photo of Mahsa Amini served as a stage backdrop and he sang an old song dealing with cruelty and oppressors.
Another backdrop had the caption: “Don’t kill these people. These people deserve life, not death. These people deserve happiness and freedom. My position is clear, I will always stand by the people of my land.”
Since the start of the demonstrations, Iranian authorities have detained a number of prominent artists, including singer Shervin Hajjipour whose song “For” became an anthem of the protest movement. Hajjipour was released on bail on Oct. 4.
German FM calls for EU sanctions over Iran crackdown
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German FM calls for EU sanctions over Iran crackdown
- “We will ensure that the EU imposes entry bans on those responsible for this brutal repression and freezes their assets in the EU”: German FM
Fresh clashes kill six in Iran cost-of-living protests
- The protests began on Sunday in Tehran, where shopkeepers went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation
- Earlier Thursday, state television reported that a member of Iran’s security forces was killed overnight during protests in the western city of Kouhdasht
TEHRAN: Protesters and security forces clashed in several Iranian cities on Thursday, with six reported killed, the first deaths since the cost-of-living demonstrations broke out.
The protests began on Sunday in Tehran, where shopkeepers went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, and have since spread to other parts of the country.
On Thursday, Iran’s Fars news agency reported two people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters in the city of Lordegan, in the province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and three in Azna, in neighboring Lorestan province.
“Some protesters began throwing stones at the city’s administrative buildings, including the provincial governor’s office, the mosque, the Martyrs’ Foundation, the town hall and banks,” Fars said of Lordegan, adding that police responded with tear gas.
Fars reported that the buildings were “severely damaged” and that police arrested several people described as “ringleaders.”
In Azna, Fars said “rioters took advantage of a protest gathering... to attack a police commissariat.”
During previous protest movements, state media has labelled demonstrators “rioters.”
Earlier Thursday, state television reported that a member of Iran’s security forces was killed overnight during protests in the western city of Kouhdasht.
“A 21-year-old member of the Basij from the city of Kouhdasht was killed last night by rioters while defending public order,” the channel said, citing Said Pourali, the deputy governor of Lorestan Province.
The Basij are a volunteer paramilitary force linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the ideological branch of the Islamic republic’s army.
Pourali said that “during the demonstrations in Kouhdasht, 13 police officers and Basij members were injured by stone throwing.”
In the western city of Hamedan, protesters torched a motorbike in what the Tasnim news agency described as an unsuccessful attempt to burn down a mosque.
The same agency reported on Thursday that 30 people in a district of Tehran had been arrested the night before for alleged public order offenses in a “coordinated operation by the security and intelligence services.”
- ‘End up in hell’ -
The demonstrations are smaller than the last major outbreak of unrest in 2022, triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.
Her death sparked a nationwide wave of anger that left several hundred people dead, including dozens of members of the security forces.
The latest protests began in the capital and spread after students from at least 10 universities joined in on Tuesday.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has sought to calm tensions, acknowledging protesters’ “legitimate demands,” and he urged the government Thursday to take action to improve the economic situation.
“From an Islamic perspective... if we do not resolve the issue of people’s livelihoods, we will end up in Hell,” Pezeshkian said at an event broadcast on state television.
Authorities, however, have also promised to take a “firm” stance, and have warned against exploiting the situation to sow chaos.
Local media coverage of the demonstrations has varied, with some outlets focusing on economic difficulties, and others on incidents caused by “troublemakers.”
Iran is in the middle of an extended weekend, with the authorities declaring Wednesday a bank holiday at the last minute, citing the need to save energy during the cold weather.
They made no official link to the protests.
The weekend in Iran begins on Thursday, and Saturday is a long-standing national holiday.
Iran’s prosecutor general said on Wednesday that peaceful economic protests were legitimate, but any attempt to create insecurity would be met with a “decisive response.”
“Any attempt to turn economic protests into a tool of insecurity, destruction of public property, or implementation of externally designed scenarios will inevitably be met with a legal, proportionate and decisive response.”
- Viral video -
Earlier this week, a video showing a person sitting in the middle of a Tehran street facing down motorcycle police went viral on social media, with some seeing it as a “Tiananmen moment” — a reference to the famous image of a Chinese protester defying a column of tanks during 1989 anti-government protests in Beijing.
On Thursday, state television alleged the footage had been staged to “create a symbol” and aired another video purportedly shot from another angle by a police officer’s camera.
Sitting cross-legged, the protester remains impassive, head bowed, before covering his head with his jacket as behind him a crowd flees clouds of tear gas.
On Wednesday evening, Tasnim reported the arrest of seven people it described as being affiliated with “groups hostile to the Islamic Republic based in the United States and Europe.”
It said they had been “tasked with turning the demonstrations into violence.” Tasnim did not say when they were arrested.
The national currency, the rial, has lost more than a third of its value against the US dollar over the past year, while double-digit hyperinflation has been undermining Iranians’ purchasing power for years.
The inflation rate in December was 52 percent year-on-year, according to the Statistical Center of Iran, an official body.
