FM spokesman: Iran mulls reciprocal sanctions on EU, suspends all talks with bloc

Saeed Khatibzadeh made the remarks on Monday after the European Union announced it has imposed sanctions ranging from travel bans to asset freezes on eight Iranian individuals, including the chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami, and three prisons on baseless human rights-related grounds.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is considering reciprocal sanctions in reaction to the EU’s measure, whose details will be announced later,” the spokesman said, adding, “Iran strongly condemns this measure and considers it as lacking any credebility.”

“Without a doubt, such measures have no value as they have been taken by false preachers of human rights, who have remained silent on the basis of political motives and only expressed regret in the face of the violation of Iranian people’s rights under inhumane and illegal US sanctions, and even agreed to them,” Khatibzadeh said.

He added that new EU bans will only bring more disgrace to those who abuse such lofty concepts as human rights.

“In reaction to this EU measure, the Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Iran stops all comprehensive talks with the European Union, including human rights discussions, as well as all forms of cooperation emanating from those talks, especially in the fields of terrorism, illicit drugs and refugees,” Khatibzadeh said.

This came after four days of talks between representatives of Iran and the remaining parties to a landmark nuclear deal between by Iran and world powers, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), ended in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Friday.

Last December, Iranian lawmakers strongly condemned the European Parliament’s resolution that censured Iran under the guise of protecting human rights, and threatened to take reciprocal action.

As many as 225 parliamentarians released a statement on December 20, three days after the EP ratified the sanctions resolution targeting a number of Iranian officials, whom the European legislature accused of violating human rights.

The Iranian legislators blasted the resolution as a clear instance of interference in the Islamic Republic’s internal affairs, drewing attention to how the EU refrained from condemning the assassination of a senior Iranian nuclear scientist in late November.