TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign ministry said Monday it is suspending cooperation with the European Union in various fields following the bloc’s decision to blacklist several Iranian security officials over a 2019 protest crackdown.

Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh “strongly condemned” the sanctions and said Iran is “suspending all human rights talks and cooperation resulting from these talks with the EU, especially in (the fields of) terrorism, drugs and refugees”.

He said Iran rejects “such actions from those falsely claiming to champion human rights”, adding Tehran is considering reciprocal sanctions.

The EU added eight Iranian security officials, including the commander of the Islamic republic’s Revolutionary Guards, and three prisons to its sanctions blacklist, effective immediately with publication in the bloc’s official journal.

The listing said Guards commander Hossein Salami “bears responsiblity for serious human rights violations”.

Also hit with sanctions is the head of the Basij paramilitary force, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ ground forces and Iran’s police chief.

In November 2019, a surprise fuel price hike sparked a wave of protests across Iran, before they were put down amid a near-total internet shutdown.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2021