EU To Slap Sanctions On Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ “Inner Circle”

Top European officials say fresh European Union sanctions will target Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and entities linked to them, amid international condemnation of a brutal crackdown by Iranian security forces on ongoing anti-government protests.

"We will adopt another sanctions package to send a clear message to those who think they can suppress, intimidate and kill their own people without consequences," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters as she arrived for a meeting with her EU counterparts in Brussels on November 14.

"They cannot," she added. "The world, Europe is watching."

"New sanctions will target in particular the inner circle of power of the Revolutionary Guards and the structures financing them."

Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron said that work was underway at the European level to "complete the lists" of sanctioned Iranian individuals with IRGC members.

"The great difficulty is to be certain that the right people are sanctioned, those who are at the heart of the system," he told Radio France, insisting that the measures should not harm the Iranian population.

The unrest triggered eight weeks ago by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police marks the boldest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.

Security forces have responded to the mainly peaceful protests with a heavy-handed clampdown that has killed more than 300 people. Activists say more than 14,000 others have been arrested or detained.

In a first round of sanctions in October, the EU imposed travel bans and asset freezes on 15 Iranian individuals and institutions linked to Amini’s death and the crackdown on the wave of protests.

Reuters news agency quoted two diplomats as saying that the new sanctions package will target 31 individuals and entities with asset bans and travel freezes.