Ottawa Officially Bans Iranian Officials From Entering Canada

In a press release on Monday the United Kingdom announced the “sanctions target officials within the Iranian regime who are responsible for heinous human rights violations.”

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly stated that by these sanctions the UK and its partners have sent a “clear message” to the Iranian regime that “the violent crackdown on protests must stop and freedom of expression must be respected.”

The Foreign Secretary expressed that Britain designates Iran’s Communications Minister Issa Zarepour as well as a number of law enforcement agents and IRGC officials who ordered and been involved in the clampdown on demonstrators.

The British foreign office further noted that Chief of Iran’s Cyber Police, Vahid Mohammad Naser Majid, will be targeted due to the internet shutdown and “disabling WhatsApp and Instagram, and banning the use of the Google Play app and virtual private networks (VPNs).”

Governor of Sistan and Baluchestan as well as Kordestan have also been sanctioned due to massacre of 80 people on September 30 in Zahedan and heavy crackdown on Kurdish protesters.

The name of Chief of Tehran Police could also be seen in the list. Hossein Rahimi is sanctioned for using live rounds and tear gas against students at Sharif University in Tehran.

The sanctions include asset freezes and travel bans.

Meanwhile, the European Union also approved a new round of sanctions Monday against 29 individuals and three entities with asset freezes and travel bans.

A statement issued in Brussels, where foreign ministers met, said the move was over “their role in the death of Mahsa Amini and the violent response to the recent demonstrations in Iran.”

Among the 29 named were Enayatollah Rafiei, Ali Enayatollah, Fatemeh Ghorban-Hosseini, and Parastou Safari, who the EU said were the “squad that arbitrarily arrested” Amini, who died September 16 after receiving fatal head blows in custody of Tehran ‘morality police.’

Also sanctioned, for “their role in the brutal repression of the recent protests,” were Iran’s Minister of Interior Ahmad Vahidi, Major-General Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and Brigadier General Major-General Kiumars Haydari, commander of the army’s ground forces. Added to the list were several provincial heads of the Iranian Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) and Basij, mainly in the majority-Sunni Kurdish and Baluchi regions where most unrest and violence have occurred.

Press TV, the English-language state television station, was designated “for producing and broadcasting the forced confessions of detainees,” along with Vahid Mohammad Naser Majid, head of the cyber-police, and the Bonyad-eh Taavon-eh Basij, a cooperative foundation linked to the Basij.

The measures involve a ban on entering the EU, the seizure of any assets in the EU, and a prohibition on EU citizens or businesses making funds available to those designated. The EU statement said it had now listed 126 people and 11 entities over human rights violations in Iran.

The “use of force against peaceful protestors” was “unjustifiable and unacceptable,” the EU said, as “people in Iran, as anywhere else, have the right to peacefully protest…” The statement called for the death of Amini to be “investigated in an independent and transparent manner and any[one] proved responsible for her death…held accountable.”

‘A clear message’

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters that the new sanctions would “send a clear message to those who think they can suppress, intimidate and kill their own people without consequences.”

EU-Iran relations have soured in recent months, with European leaders vocal both over protests in Iran and Russia’s use of Iranian-made drones in Ukraine. French President Monday spoke Monday of a ‘new framework’ for regional security given the continuing failure of 18-month talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

As a further sign of the ‘E3’ signatories of the JCPOA – France, Germany, and the United Kingdom – moving closer to the US, the E3 is preparing a second resolution, following one in June, at this week’s quarterly board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) condemning Iran over what the IAEA has said is a lack of cooperation with the agency.

Iran’s foreign affairs spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Monday the US and E3 were “again trying to use the agency politically and turn it into a vehicle for political pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Kanaani pointed to the scheduled visit this month of IAEA officials to discuss the outstanding issue of uranium traces found in sites linked to Tehran’s pre-2003 nuclear work, but US State Department Spokesman Ned Price last week said Iran was “foot-dragging.”

The UK also Monday announced new sanctions against Iran over “violent repression of protests.” Those named included cyber-police chief Majid, and the Communications Minister Issa Zarepour.

The antigovernment movement is clearly seeking to overthrow the Islamic regime, judging by daily slogans demonstrators chant and their social media posts, but the United States refuses to say that Iranian protesters want to change the regime and establish a democratic, secular form of government.

In his media briefing November 10, spokesperson Ned Price refused to say what the protest movement is about, insisting that it is up to the people involved to characterize their movement.

But before that, Price had already uttered words that essentially did characterize the movement. Speaking earlier during the briefing he said demonstrators demand reforms.

"We have spent a good deal of time at senior levels…speaking about ways that we can demonstrate our support for those brave Iranians, including many women and girls, who are peacefully demonstrating, taking to the streets, to call for the reforms that they’re demanding," Price said.

The Biden Administration’s reluctance to call the protests a movement demanding democracy and a new form of government started after its special envoy for Iran Rob Malley in October sent a tweet that sparked strong objections by Iranians.

Malley in his tweet said that Iranians were protesting to have the Islamic Republic “respect their human rights and dignity.” Iranians on social media strongly objected, saying ordinary people risking their lives in the streets had proven that they reject the clerical regime and want a new, democratic government and not just respect from an oppressive regime.

Malley apologized and the administration adopted its current position of refusing to characterize the demands of the protest movement, while it does call other movements around the world as protests for democracy.

Some argue that the administration is still interested in returning to the 2015 nuclear accord known as the JCPOA, and is reluctant to further antagonize the Iranian regime, which is already blaming “enemies” for instigating the protests.

After 18 months of JCPOA negotiations, Iran put forward demands in August that Washington rejected, but it has not declared an end to the talks.

Meanwhile, there have been many demands by US lawmakers and Iranian Americans to replace Malley as Iran envoy. An online petition launched in October has collected more than 127,000 signatures.

The petition was launched after Malley’s tweet. The sponsor said that the special envoy “minimized the Iran protest movement by portraying it as merely a quest by Iranians to have the government in Tehran ‘respect their human rights and dignity’.”

But the remark by Price about reforms, however, revealed that the administration still regards the protests as a reform movement despite the debacle with Malley’s tweet. Price was trying to argue that the administration is trying to galvanize support for Iranians, when he said demonstrators are taking to the streets, “to call for the reforms that they’re demanding.”

Already, several well-known Iranian Americans on social media have criticized Price for his remark.

In a statement on Friday, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said, "I summoned the Iranian representative today to make clear that we do not tolerate threats to life and intimidation of any kind towards journalists, or any individual, living in the UK."

“The UK will always stand up to threats from foreign nations,” read the statement.

Criticizing the Iranian regime, it added that the Islamic Republic responded to widespread internal protests with the suppression of freedom of expression and the targeting of media outlets operating in Iran.

It noted that more than 40 journalists have been arrested and detained since the current wave of protests began following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The journalists who reported the circumstances around her death have been also arrested.

The Metropolitan Police formally notified two of our journalists about an imminent, credible and significant risk to their lives and those of their families.

Earlier in the week, Iran’s intelligence minister implicitly threatened the UK of terrorist operations after the country decried the attempted menacing acts.

Iranian vice president Mohammad Hosseini also emphasized Thursday that the Islamic Republic now considers Iran International as a terrorist network. Iranian intelligence also arrested Elham Afkari Thursday, claiming that she was “an agent” of Iran International. Afkari is the sister of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari who was executed in September 2020, after participating in protests.

The November 24-26 board meeting of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will likely see a fresh resolution censoring Tehran over restricted access to agency inspectors. Reports emerged Friday that the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, were circulating to the board’s 35 member-states a draft resolution calling it “essential and urgent” for Iran to address agency unease.

IAEA concerns are twofold. Firstly, as highlighted by the resolution, Tehran has not satisfied the IAEA over uranium traces found in sites used for pre-2003 nuclear work. There is little expectation of a breakthrough in meetings with Iranian officials planned for later this month.

Ned Price, the US State Department Spokesman, Thursday accused Iran of “foot-dragging.” Tehran has demanded the IAEA drop questions over the uranium traces to help talks, currently frozen, to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), which the US left in 2018.

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The agency’s second main area of concern is Iran’s reducing since February 2021 IAEA general access to the nuclear program, which is now broadly as required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty rather than as enhanced by the JCPOA.

This downgraded access, coupled with the issue of uranium traces, has led agency director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi to warn he may no longer be able to verify the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program. A report circulated Thursday to IAEA member states noted that “the longer the current situation persists the greater such uncertainty becomes.”

The agency monitors Iran’s uranium stockpiles, which it currently reports at 3,674kg, way above the 267kg JCPOA cap, including 62kg enriched to 60 percent, close to 90 percent ‘weapons grade.’ But Iran’s removal of monitoring equipment in factories where it makes centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, has stymied the agency’s ability to judge the overall program. While access to such factories is not required under Iran’s NPT commitments, knowing the number and type of centrifuges Iran has ready and waiting is crucial to assessing how quickly the program can expand.

While Price said Thursday the US was consulting its “European partners,” options for effective action appear limited. The IAEA board passed a resolution June censoring Iran over the uranium traces, and it far from clear what a new resolution might achieve. The draft text, as reported by Reuters Friday, says Iran should “act to fulfil its legal obligations and... without delay…provide all information, documentation, and answers” required by the IAEA, as well as “access to locations and material…[and the] taking of samples…”

Unlike 2006, when the IAEA referred Iran to the United Nations Security Council over its atomic program, Russia and China would no longer back the move. Both hold UNSC vetoes and see the US as primarily responsible for the JCPOA’s demise.

Even though decisions over JCPOA restoration rest with President Joe Biden, JCPOA critics in the US may feel emboldened by the swing away from the Democrats in the November 8 Congressional elections, even if control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate remains unclear.

‘Acting with judgement’

The looming return to office in Israel of Benjamin Netanyahu after November 1 Knesset elections is another complication. Outgoing prime minister Yair Lapid developed a good relationship with the Biden administration although critical of efforts to revive the JCPOA, whereas Netanyahu previously identified with President Donald Trump. Outgoing Defense Minister Benny Gantz Wednesday talked up work done by the outgoing administration in preparing for military strikes on Iran, suggesting Netanyahu would now “act with judgement.”

While the Ukraine crisis, Iran’s wave of internal protests, and Tehran’s growing links with Moscow have all brought the US closer to the three European JCPOA signatories – France, Germany, and the UK – Biden’s alternatives appear limited.

Given “Iran’s dangerous proliferation of weapon systems to Russia,” Price said Thursday the US would “continue to vigorously enforce all US sanctions on both the Russian and Iranian arms trade.” He conceded that while Washington was “looking at all appropriate tools” for dealing with Iran, it was already “very heavily sanctioned, to say the least…for the full range of their nefarious activities.”