US imposes new sanctions on Iran over human rights: What does Azerbaijan need to know

Washington on Thursday announced additional sanctions on Iran over its handling of grave human rights crisis born out of the repression of nationwide protests, which started last month. The horrifying numbers are still trickling in: anywhere around 1,000 people dead, 2,000 injured, while over 7,000 are in jail.

"Iran's human rights violations are worse than unacceptable. They’re evil, and they’re wrong," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a speech at the State Department, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

U.S. government will freeze the assets of two Iranian judges - Mohammad Moghisseh and Abolghassem Salavati - who gave harsh sentences to human rights activists and others, he said.

For Pompeo, when the leaders of sovereign nations put their interests and the interests of their citizens first, the country's partnerships will be stronger.

Donald Trump's administration has imposed a series of sanctions on Iranian firms and officials while seeking dialogue with Tehran.

Asked whether the U.S. sanctions on Iran create any redline for other regional countries, - such as Russia and Azerbaijan - in their relationship with Iran, Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran told TURAN that "we sanction any sanctionable activity; that’s just a policy, and applied universally" adding that "there aren’t any exceptions to it."

"The Department of Justice recently announced prosecution against some individuals who were facilitating parts to Mahan Air.  Mahan Air is the airline of choice for all – for Iranian terrorists and arms dealers.  And any person or organization that is supporting the operations of Mahan Air, we sanction," he said as an example.

Speaking to reporters at the Washington Foreign Press Center, Hook also mentioned that U.S. will restrict visas for current or former Iranian officials responsible for cracking down on anti-government demonstrators.

The restriction also applies to the officials' families because "we don’t want them or the children of the regime elite coming into the United States and enjoying the benefits and the freedoms that they can enjoy here but the Iranian people are denied by their government." Hook added.

For Robert Destro, assistant secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Iran today fails to meet its obligations to protect labor rights, using wage cuts, harassment, and arrests to intimidate its people and deny them fundamental freedoms of association and expression.

While Washington is supportive of a regime change in Iran, such change must be brought about by the Iranian people and not by the U.S, Destro told reporters. "It's not for us here in the United States to change the Iranian regime. It's for Iranian people to change the Iranian regime. We can be supportive, but we can't interfere."

According to him, Iranian people are currently facing very serious problems: The rate of unemployment is pretty staggering; the economy is collapsing in large part because "the Iranian government is suppressing the creativity of its own people."

In the meantime, members of Iranian religious minority groups face discrimination, harassment, and unjust imprisonment because of their beliefs, according to Sam Brownback, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.

Answering to TURAN's question on the current state of human rights violations targeting Azeris in Iran, Amb. Brownback said, Tehran denies all the minorities -including Azeris - their entire rights unless they "will fly within the regime’s picture of what an Islamic state has to look like, practicing Shia religion the way they define Shi’ism has to be practiced."

"So in that sense, the Azeris receive the same sort of persecution that almost any other population group does. If they decide they want to be in a different branch of Islam, they’re persecuted. If they decide they want to convert to another faith, to be Zoroastrian or Christian, they’re persecuted. If they’re Baha’i Azeris, they’re persecuted.  It’s just – it’s this complete lack of tolerance.  And one of the things that – this is such a dead-end road for the Iranian country and the Iranian people. This declines your economy, this creates more terrorism, this creates more dissent within a country when you operate this way, and yet they’ve chosen not only to do it, but to up their game; now, on this latest crackdown that Brian spoke about, the most that they’ve ever done."

"But that’s also the trajectory that you have to stay on if you’re the Iranian regime, because as more and more people get more and more dissatisfied and willing to act out more and more, the stakes get higher and more people get killed, and that’s why it needs to end," he added.

Aked whether the U.S. will take “Iran dossier” to the UN Security Council, Hook told TURAN's correspondent that Washington had just presented recent evidence demonstrating that Iran was responsible for the recent attack on Saudi Arabia.

"That is a violation of the UN charter... It violates the sovereignty of another country.  We do think there is a role for the [UN] Security Council to play today. It is being discussed. But I think, as the countries that are involved with the site exploitation conclude their investigations, that that will be presented to the UN Security Council, and then it will be up to the Council on what action that they think is appropriate to take when one country violates the sovereignty of another country with military force."

Alex Raufoglu

Washington D.C.