On Monday, the European Union and the British government imposed new sanctions on Iranian officials over "serious violations" of human rights, and the British Foreign Office summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires to protest threats against Iranian journalists living in the United Kingdom.

The union said - in a statement after the meeting of its foreign ministers in the Belgian capital, Brussels - that it had decided to impose restrictive measures on 32 individuals and two entities responsible for gross human rights violations in Iran.

The statement indicated that the sanctions include the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Muhammad Mahdi Ismaili, and the Minister of Education, Youssef Nuri.

The sanctions include freezing assets, banning travel to the European Union, and prohibiting the provision of funds or economic resources to targeted persons and entities, according to the statement.

The sanctions included parliamentarians, law enforcement officials and judges, for what the statement called the "violent suppression of peaceful protests and the imposition of the death penalty" on demonstrators.

The European Union urged the Iranian authorities to stop the violent crackdown on peaceful protests, and to stop resorting to arbitrary arrests, according to the statement.

For its part, the British government on Monday imposed new sanctions on 3 Iranian judges, 3 commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and two Iranian provincial governors.

British protest

In a related context, the British Foreign Office summoned - on Monday - the Iranian Chargé d'Affairs in London, Mahdi Hosseini Matin, who is the highest diplomatic official in the Iranian embassy, ​​​​to protest "serious threats" that prompted the private "Iran International TV" to close its offices in London.

A London-based television station known for its criticism of the Iranian government said on Saturday it would move its live broadcast studios to the United States, after it faced threats in Britain.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said - in a statement - "I am appalled by the Iranian regime's constant threat to the lives of journalists based in the United Kingdom, and today I summoned Iran's representative to make it clear that we will not tolerate these threats."

The ministry said that British officials told the Iranian charge d'affaires at a meeting that Britain would not accept such threats to journalists' lives and media freedom.

Scotland Yard said that, since the beginning of 2022, it and the Internal Intelligence Service had thwarted 15 plans to kill and kidnap British citizens or residents of Britain, whom Tehran considers to be "enemies of the regime."

Relations between London and Tehran have been strained since the execution of British-Iranian Ali Reza Akbari a month ago on charges of spying for the United Kingdom.

The United States, Britain and the European Union condemn the government's "crackdown" on popular protests in Iran, which erupted after the death of a young woman of Kurdish origin, Mahsa Amini, 3 days after she was detained by the morality police last September.

On the other hand, Tehran accuses Western countries of fomenting unrest across the country with the aim of overthrowing the regime.