Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday announced that the country is suspending its cooperation with the European Union in various fields after the bloc decided to blacklist several Iranian security officials over a 2019 protest crackdown.

Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh “strongly condemned” the sanctions and said Iran is “suspending all human rights talks and cooperation resulting from these talks with the EU, especially in (the fields of) terrorism, drugs and refugees,” AFP reported.

ALSO READ | Israel behind nuclear site incident, will take ‘revenge’: Iran foreign ministry

The EU imposed sanctions on eight Iranian militia commanders and police chiefs, including the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Reuters reported.

Hossein Salami, head of the IRGC, a body with at least 250,000 military personnel, was among those sanctioned by the bloc. Members of Basij militia, who are under the command of the Revolutionary Guards, were also blacklisted.

ALSO READ | Accident at Iran nuclear facility, no casualties or pollution: Reports

Khatibzadeh also accused the bloc of having “stayed silent in the face of” Washington’s sanctions and only “expressing regret”, while “cooperating” with the US.

The decision comes at a time when the EU and the US are hoping to get Iran back into the 2015 nuclear deal, after Washington withdrew from the accord in 2018 and reimposed punishing sanctions on Iran that had been lifted in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme.

In November 2019, a surprise fuel price hike sparked a wave of protests across Iran, before they were put down amid a near-total internet shutdown.

At least 304 people died in the unrest, according to London-based Amnesty International, while some authorities in Iran have announced 230 deaths during what they called “riots”.

Although, according to Reuters, about 1,500 people were killed in less than two weeks of the unrest.

On March 9, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, presented a report saying Tehran used lethal force during the protests and chided it for failing to conduct a proper investigation or failing to hold anyone accountable.

ALSO READ | Key developments since US killing of Iran general

The EU will also extend sanction over human rights violations in Iran until 13 April 2022 — including a travel ban and freezing of assets, a ban on exports to Iran of equipment that might be used for internal repression and of equipment for monitoring telecommunications and banning EU citizens and companies from making funds available to the listed individuals and entities.

Meanwhile, the ongoing negotiations in Vienna are currently focused on trying to persuade Washington to drop sanctions and Tehran to roll back breaches of the agreement made in retaliation.