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Iran should not ‘overestimate’ EU’s sanctions, nothing has changed: Analyst

European Union flags flutter outside the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium June 17, 2022. (Photo by Reuters)

Iran should not “overestimate” the European Union’s decisions for the imposition of a fresh round of sanctions as practically nothing has changed, a political analyst says.

Elijah Magnier told Press TV on Mondays that practically nothing has changed despite the EU’s attempts to put more pressure on Iran by imposing more sanctions against the country.

“I think Iran should not overestimate the EU decisions … Basically, what we are seeing here is [more] psychological pressure on Iran, but at the end of the day, in a matter of practicality, nothing has changed,” he said.

In a hostile move, the EU on Monday imposed sanctions on more than 30 Iranian officials and organizations for what it claimed to be a “brutal” crackdown on and “repression” of recent protests, which were triggered by the death of a young Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, in Tehran last September.

The tragic death of Amini instigated riots which were immediately picked up by Western-based media outlets and officials, who – without providing any convincing evidence – started claiming that the woman had been “murdered” by police forces, while further investigations, run by Iranian authorities, proved otherwise.

Magnier said that the EU’s actions are only making Iran “more sensitive” to the fact that it should not rely on the EU and that the bloc and the US are both “on the same boat.”

He further slammed the West’s “double standards” and “hypocrisy”  which has been going on for a long time.

“There is a mentality in the West that we can do what we want. You cannot do what we do. We make the law and we do not respect these laws. We break international laws because it is our right. This is colonialism,” he added.

Magnier said that the EU thinks that by imposing more sanctions, it can “break the population” to force them to look toward the West and bow to it. “However, it is not going to happen,” he said.

 

On the same note, the European Parliament called on Wednesday for the designation of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

In response, Iran said it can withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and discharge the inspectors of the UN nuclear agency as countermeasures.

Magnier said pulling out of the NPT is “not a bad idea” and could raise the alarm in the West as it has already made Europe partially backtrack on its decision.

On Monday, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced that the bloc cannot list the Islamic IRGC as a “terrorist” entity without an EU court ruling.

Back in December, the EU foreign ministers agreed to impose new sanctions on a number of Iranian individuals and entities over an alleged crackdown on recent protests and drone deliveries to Russia for use in the Ukraine war.

The 27-nation bloc imposed sanctions on 20 individuals along with entities – including the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting – over alleged human rights abuses, while four more people and as many entities were blacklisted over the issue of drones.


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