EU expected to approve new Iran sanctions in response to crackdown

BRUSSELS, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The EU is ⁠expected to sanction ⁠some ‍20 Iranian individuals and entities under its human rights rules this week but is not expected to add Iran's Revolutionary Guards to its terrorist list due ‍to opposition from France, officials said on Tuesday.

European Union foreign ministers will discuss ​the situation in Iran when they gather in Brussels on Thursday, and are expected to sign off on the ​new sanctions.

The new measures are expected to include export restrictions on components that Iran can use for the production of drones and missiles, bringing limitations into line with EU policy on Russia. Some Iranian individuals and ​entities will also be sanctioned for providing support to Russia, the officials said.

Set up after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shi'ite clerical ruling system, the Islamic Revolutionary ​Guard Corps (IRGC) has great sway in the country, controlling swathes of the economy and armed forces and was put in charge of ‌Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear programmes.

While some EU member states have previously pushed for the IRGC to be added to the EU's terrorist list, others ​have been more cautious fearing that it could ⁠lead to a complete break in ties with Iran.

Iran's protests and the authorities' violent response, however, revived the debate ahead of the EU ministers' meeting ‌this week.

Anti-government protests that swept across Iran since December have triggered the bloodiest crackdown by authorities since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, drawing international condemnation.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday that he will call ‌for placing the IRGC on the EU's terrorist list, signaling a shift in Rome's position and leaving Paris ‌as the one major holdout.

As a result, while some of the individuals expected to be sanctioned will include members of the IRGC, adding the group as a whole to the bloc's terrorist list looks unlikely for ‍now as that would require unanimity.

"France has made it clear that they do not believe it would be useful to list the IRGC for ⁠now and want to keep communications open," said one European diplomat, adding that Paris was also worried it could harm efforts to bring back two of its citizens currently living at the embassy in Tehran after being released from prison last year.

(Reporting by John Irish, Lili Bayer, Julia Payne and Andrew Gray; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

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