EU Targets Iran For Syrian Crackdown Support

The Guardian reports:

Iran's Revolutionary Guard commanders – along with close relatives and business associates of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad – have been targeted by new EU sanctions imposed over the repression of protests in Syria.

Syria has denied that Iran has been helping to crush unrest despite claims by western governments and Syrian opposition groups – so the new measures against senior regime figures in Tehran and Damascus, announced in Brussels on Friday, send a strong message to both countries.

General Muhammad Ali Jafari, the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) commander, and General Qasem Soleimani, who leads its elite al-Quds force, both face EU asset freezes and travel bans. They are already under US sanctions.

The EU document cites three Iranians as "providing equipment and support to help the Syrian regime suppress protests". Hossein Taeb, also of the IRGC, is described as its deputy commander for intelligence. The IRGC answers directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and works closely with Iran's allies in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian movement Hamas, and is a priority target for western intelligence agencies.