Strasbourg, 10/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - While, the very same day, the Six (i.e. China, USA, France, UK, Russia and Germany) were calling on Tehran to fully cooperate with the IAEA on its controversial nuclear programme, the European Parliament urged the EU, on Thursday 10 March, to contemplate new sanctions against Iran not only in relation to its atomic programme but also to the repeated human rights violations in that country since the controversial presidential election of 2009.
In a resolution adopted on Thursday on the basis of the report by Bastiaan Belder (EFD, NL), the Parliament calls in favour of a strategy towards Iran that goes further than the nuclear programme to also cover the deplorable human rights situation in the country and the destabilising role this has for regional security in the Middle East. EU foreign minsters are invited to envisage sanctions targeting Iranian officials responsible for human rights violations observed since 2009, in the spirit of similar measures adopted in September by the United States. Also, given Iran's constant refusal to cooperate with the IAEA, the EP calls for additional sanctions to be imposed on Iran. Finally, deploring the fact that the number of executions in Iran in 2009 was the highest worldwide, and the highest over the past 10 years in the Islamic Republic, the EP condemns the refusal by Iranian authorities to admit there is social malaise, popular discontent and growing aspirations by the people for democratic change. It also states concern about the ever greater role of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution in the various spheres of Iranian society, fearing greater militarisation of the state which could bring about an escalation of violence and oppression of any political opposition. (E.H./transl.jl)