The Big Headache of Paper Scraps for the Iranian People
I said on the very first day that the sanctions are just scraps of paper, and they truly are. Just walk around Iran now and see if anyone is even sensitive to this. These words are among the most memorable political statements of the miracle of the third millennium, which will not be forgotten due to the extensive effects of economic and non-economic sanctions on the everyday lives of Iranian citizens as long as these sanctions remain.
The reality is that in the last two decades, numerous and varied sanctions have been imposed on Iran, ranging from trade, monetary, and financial bans to restrictive measures in the fields of energy, transportation, and even scientific and academic cooperation. In other words, it is not an exaggeration to consider the list of Iran’s sanctions as an epic poem due to their breadth and all-encompassing nature.
One of the latest sanction measures is the European Union Council’s initiative against Iran’s aviation industry. On October 14, 2024, this European body added the names and details of seven Iranian individuals and seven legal entities to its sanctions list, claiming their involvement in Russia’s military attack on Ukraine.
As a result, these individuals—including three major Iranian aviation companies, IranAir, Saha, and Mahan—can no longer enter the territorial domain of the twenty-seven member states of this body.
Meanwhile, their assets in these countries have been seized, and they lose the ability to benefit from financial resources provided by these countries.
We can also add the ban on access to communication technologies to these measures.
An event where the increase in travel costs to European countries for ordinary people and governmental and private institutions is the least of its consequences.
If the planes belonging to these three companies land on the soil of the mentioned states, they will be immediately seized.
An important point, even mentioned by the Minister of Roads and Urban Development, is that in a broad view, 227 legal entities and 42 individuals make up the European Union Council’s sanctions list against Iran.
The structure of these sanctions is based on three foundations: human rights violations, nuclear program development, and drone and missile activities, and it has expanded over nearly a decade.
The first sanction measure by this European body was Decision No. 235, which was adopted on April 12, 2011, with the claim of human rights violations in Iran. It was expanded at times, especially during the unrest in the fall of 2022, and no action has been taken to lift them so far.
Sanctions related to the nuclear program were almost entirely lifted following the JCPOA, but on October 17, 2023, it was decided that the remaining minor bans would be upheld.
Regarding drone and missile sanctions, this European body makes three different claims against Iran: supporting Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, providing military support to militant groups in the West Asia region, and violating UN Security Council Resolution 2216, which targets the recent sanctions against Russia’s war on Ukraine.
On July 20, 2023, the European Union Council adopted Decision No. 1532 in relation to this issue and has now added new instances to it.
This body claims that Iran, by transferring ballistic missiles and related technology and drones to Russia, has played a role in violating Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty and infringing on the rights of Ukrainian civilians, and the current sanctions are being implemented to counter these actions.
The drone and missile sanctions regime of the European Union Council is enforceable until July 27, 2025, and its extension is not far-fetched. However, if there is no decision to resort to political methods for resolving the dispute, we must turn to legal options to prevent asset seizures.
The immediate option is to refer to the European Court of Justice under Article 263 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and demand the annulment of this sanction decision.
The fresh wound of the $1.8 billion loss in the case of some Iranian assets in the International Court of Justice is still open.
Therefore, it is appropriate for the Legal Affairs Department of the Presidential Office to take the necessary legal actions at the right time to protect Iran’s assets so that we do not suffer more losses due to a handful of scraps of paper.
As the wise Sheikh said, ‘One must remedy the incident before it occurs; regret is of no use once the matter is out of hand.’
