Tariq Al-Homayed, a Saudi journalist and writer, in an opinion piece in Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, for which he was a former editor-in-chief, refutes the statements of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, that came after the decision last Monday of the US, British, and European countries to impose sanctions against Iran that targeted individuals and entities, including the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the “Basij” militia, and its deputy commander.
In his article, published last Wednesday, Al-Homayed quotes Borrell as saying that the EU could not include the IRGC on the list of terrorist entities until a court in one of the EU states issues a concrete condemnation.
In response to this statement, Al-Homayed raises a number of direct questions: “Were all of these recent sanctions on Iranian entities and individuals imposed by the US, Britain, and France implemented through a court ruling? Do all the crimes of the IRGC within Iran and in the Middle East region, besides those that it commits in the United States, Europe, and other countries of the world, require a court decision? If so, why hasn’t one of these countries taken action before?”
“What did the European Union rely on, legally, to impose all these sanctions on Russia after the war in Ukraine?” Al-Homayed goes on to ask.
Al-Homayed compares this with the actions of the IRGC’s actions in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as in Ukraine, and what it is doing in Iran itself against the Iranian people who demand dignity and an end to sham executions of Iranians, adding that the crimes of the mullahs and the IRGC, whether against Iranians, states, or international law, do not need proof in order to be condemned.
Al-Homayed stresses that in the Middle East region, it is taken for granted that the Mullahs’ regime “only understands the language of force.” Deeds, not words, are what matters. And the sanctions that have been imposed by the West so far have not reached the point where the Iranian regime feels threatened, but rather give it hope that the door for negotiation is still open.”
“All sanctions imposed on Tehran’s mullahs so far are incomplete and ineffective,” Al-Homayed concludes in his article.
