EU Eying Punitive Measures On Iran Over Crackdown, Drones Sales To Russia

During the meeting on Friday, Blinken said, "We work to support the Iranians who are standing for their fundamental freedoms with extraordinary courage despite the efforts of the regime to deny them the ability to assemble, to speak freely, to communicate with each other."

Iranian-British activist Nazanin Boniadi was among the participants of the meeting. Boniadi is also scheduled to hold another meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris later in the day. Iranian-American writer Roya Hakakian and Iranian-American activist Sherry Hakimi were also present in the meeting, which was also attended by US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

Blinken mentioned the recent sanctions on the so-called morality police for its “incredibly abusive practices” and efforts to “license technology” so that the Iranians can communicate with one another and the outside world as measures to back the uprising in Iran, triggered by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. 

He said, “the Iranian regime will try to paint this and other expressions of solidarity with those standing up for their freedoms as evidence that these protests are somehow made outside of Iran and the work of others,” noting that the Islamic Republic’s authorities “fundamentally do not understand their own people,” and “the struggle of the people of Iran for the fundamental freedoms that have long been denied them.” “And the sooner the regime understands that and acts on that. The better everyone will be.”

The National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI) sent a letter to Blinken October 11, asking the Administration “to reassess its prevailing policy toward Iran and the team of diplomats tasked to implement it.”

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, who has taken a lead on US sanctions in the administration of President Joe Biden, made the remarks as representatives of 32 countries gathered in Washington to discuss measures against Russia over the war in Ukraine.

The US has accused Iran of supplying suicide drones to Russia and Ukraine has reported several attacks by Iranian-made UAVs against infrastructure and civilian targets. Tehran has denied it has supplied any drones, but Russia and Iran remain close allies, who have fought together in Syria for seven years to save Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

During a visit to Tehran by President Vladimir Putin in July, Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei praised the “initiative” of the Russian leader in attacking Ukraine.

The deputy secretary said Friday the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) would issue guidance making clear the US was “willing and able to sanction people, companies, or countries that provide ammunition to Russia or support Russia’s military-industrial complex.”

With Iran-Russia-trade variously reported as $2-$4 billion annually, US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Tehran already threaten punitive action against any entity dealing with Iran’s financial sector. In September, the US imposed sanctions on several companies for helping or facilitating the drone transfers to Russia.

Russia is “expending munitions at an unsustainable rate,” Morgan Muir, a deputy director of national intelligence for mission integration, was due to tell Friday’s Washington gathering, Reuters reported. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, the US has sent Ukraine $16.8 billion in aid, including armored vehicles, Howitzers with 880,000 rounds, as well as Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles.

The US has followed a graduated approach to an economic blockage of Russia, seeking to win support from allies. With Opec+, led by Russia and Saudi Arabia, recently agreeing to reduce oil output, thereby exerting upward pressure on prices, the US is working international agreement to set a price cap on Russian oil exports rather than on sanctioning buyers, Adeyemo said Wednesday.

Adeyemo told Foreign Policy in an interview published October 7 that work on sanctioning Russia began back in November 2021. He said the aim was to change Russia’s behavior: “The two places that we decided to target were Russia’s revenues in order to reduce the amount of money that they would have to prop up their economy and fund their illegitimate war in Ukraine with. And the second one was going after Russia’s military-industrial complex.”

Adeyemo conceded in the interview that Russia “and any other actor” would find ways to evade sanctions, so requiring new US “targeting.” He played down the refusal of many countries to go along with US sanctions, suggesting “the US relationship with India [for example] is as close as it’s ever been.”

His brother Hassan Ronaghi wrote in a tweet on Friday that "the Islamic Republic intends to kill my brother Hossein." 

“They kept him in prison without treatment and medicine, with a broken leg and a sick body, while he is vomiting blood,” he said, emphasizing that his life is in danger.

The dissident blogger and freedom activist was arrested over his support for protests late in September, and prison guards broke his leg in detention. 

He was arrested several times in the past decade and has staged hunger strikes in prison. Ronaghi was first arrested, along with his brother Hassan, in the aftermath of the disputed presidential elections in 2009 for helping journalists and political activists to circumvent internet censorship. He was also charged with insulting Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in his blog posts.

In an interview with Germany's Bild published on January 28, Ronaghi spoke about losing his kidney while in Evin Prison. "I'm still suffering from the effects of the torture, but the good thing is that I'm still alive and can continue," he said.

While many top officials in Iran are adamant that the current uprising – sparked after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in hijab police custody -- must be crushed violently, some regime insiders are beginning to explore peaceful alternatives, as protesters take to the streets daily. 

In a letter Thursday, she also submitted 13 recommendations for the Biden administration to reorient US policy towards listening to the demands of the Iranian people, not their oppressive government.

“Decades of repression under reformist, pragmatic, and conservative presidents have made life there unbearable,” she said, adding that “The problems of the regime stem from its revolutionary ideology, ossified leadership, antisemitism, and a structural anti-woman mindset.”

Describing the Islamic Republic as “a radical cause, not an ordinary country," she said, “Iran’s Supreme Leader has consistently prioritized the welfare of his terror proxies over his own people.”

She also called on the US government and its allies in the E3 (the United Kingdom, France, and Germany) to halt nuclear negotiations with the Islamic Republic while it is suppressing protests and throttling the internet.

Alinejad also urged the US to introduce human rights as a condition of continuing nuclear negotiations, emphasizing that Washington should refuse to greenlight release of Tehran’s frozen funds in foreign banks, “conditioning doing so on tangible improvement of the human rights situation.”

She called for the establishment of an independent UN investigative mechanism to hold Iranian leaders and security forces accountable, noting that the Islamic Republic “is incapable of mounting independent investigations on its own" as it has been the case for the downing of the Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 in 2020.

This comes while the protesters who take to the streets daily, risking their lives, freedom and property insist that the uprising should continue until the Islamic Republic is toppled.

On Thursday, October 13, the editor of the Islamic Republic newspaper, Masih Mohajeri, wrote in an editorial that "protesters may end the uprising and get closer to state officials if they see that their economic problems are solved and their citizenship rights are respected by those officials."

Without explaining how that would be possible, the editorial stressed that the protesters' demands must be met. Also, without mentioning the government's inefficiency, the editorial pointed out, "There are many individuals in the country who are ready to serve the people, but radical elements have kept them away from the government for various reasons. So, they are isolated, and their capabilities are not used in the management of the country."

Meanwhile, senior cleric, Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli called on the government "to solve the country's economic problems as everybody issuffering from the painful poverty that is imposed on the people." He further stressed: "There is no whip more painful than poverty." He warned that economic problems will not be solved as long as there are embezzlements and astronomical salaries.”

However, neither Mohajeri, nor Javadi Amoli mentioned that the current government and to a great extent its predecessor were unable to tackle the economic problems which are largely the outcome of counter-productive decisions made by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, his hard-line followers and inner circle.

They did not say how can Iran's economic problems be solved without an effective foreign policy that can end the country's international isolation and lift international sanctions that have paralyzed the country's economy. They also ignored the fact that without abiding by international financial regulations banning sponsorship of terrorism and money laundering, the country's economy will not be linked to global markets.

Insiders who give some constructive advice, however, often do not cross the regime’s red line of calling out Khamenei for imposing an anti-US and anti-West foreign policy on the country. They do not say that without coming to terms with the United States, limiting its nuclear program and stripping it of military dimensions, promising not to intervene in the affairs of regional states and stopping ballistic missile development, Iran will have no future.

Individuals such as Javadi Amoli and Mohajeri, regardless of their goodwill, keep forgetting that there is no visible sign in Khamenei's remarks and other officials' statement to respect citizens’ rights. Instead, there are plenty of defiant and arrogant remarks in the daily news from Iran that show neither Khamenei nor any other official has the slightest inclination to respect civil right. Many analysts have noted that their behavior is similar to those who have occupied a country and are exerting pressure on its residents.

Regardless of the severity of Iranians' financial hardship in recent months, not even a single slogan has been chanted in four weeks of uprising calling for improvement in people's livelihood. Instead, nearly all of the slogans chanted point out that what Iranians want is an end to clerical rule and Khamenei's dictatorship.