Alongside extended sanctions on Syria, the EU adds three commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to a blacklist that imposes travel restrictions and freezes assets.
Reuters
Iran accused the European Union of “distorting reality” on Sunday after the bloc slapped sanctions on the Syrian leadership and three high-ranking Iranian officials the EU said was helping Damascus crush dissent.
Alongside extended sanctions on Syria, the EU added three commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards – accused of supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s suppression of anti-government protests — to a blacklist that imposes travel restrictions and freezes assets.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, holds up the hand of his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad after he awarded Iran’s highest national medal to Assad, October 2, 2010.
“The EU’s baseless claim linking Iran’s Revolutionary Guards with Syrian events shows its attempt to target propaganda against the Islamic Republic and to distort reality,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in a statement.
He denied Tehran was interfering in Syria’s internal affairs, saying, “The government and people of Syria enjoy the political and social maturity to resolve their domestic problems.”
Iran, which crushed its own anti-government protests after the contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in2009, has voiced support for uprisings in most of the Arab world, except in Syria, which has what Iran sees as a “line of resistance” against Israel. Both support militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
As part of a drive led by Washington to further isolate Iran which it believes is developing nuclear weapons, the United States blacklisted a major Iranian port operator and its national airline, Iran Air, last Thursday.
The U.S. Treasury said Iran Air and its Iran Air Tours subsidiary had on numerous occasions transported military-related equipment on behalf of the government, including missiles, rockets and titanium sheets, a dual-use material that can be used in advanced weapons systems.
Iran Air Chief Executive Farhad Parvaresh called the sanctions “ineffective and useless”.
“Imposing sanctions against Iran’s aviation is not something new. It is more than 30 years that Iran air does not have any flights to America,” he was quoted as saying by Sharq daily.
The sanctions on Iran Air could increase difficulties in the airline’s operations that started last year when airports in many Western countries stopped refuelling its planes because of U.S. sanctions prohibiting the export of refined petroleum products to Iran.
Tehran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and says it wants atomic technology for power and other peaceful purposes.
