As European Union foreign ministers added 100 Iranian companies and individuals to a sanctions blacklist on Monday, Iran’s Parliament was set to debate censuring 26 US officials, Arman daily reported.

“Under this plan, 26 American officials who have a history of human rights violations in the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan, and who support terrorism will be sanctioned,” lawmaker Kazem Jalali was quoted as saying.

While the new EU sanctions agreed on Monday are aimed at pressuring Iran to curb its nuclear activities, the measures being discussed in Tehran are a response to a US move last year to punish Iranians who Washington said were involved in human rights abuses during mass protests in 2009.

Jalali, spokesman of Parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, did not name the officials but said if lawmakers approve the draft, “there will be punitive measures considered for them.”

The United States has imposed many rafts of sanctions on Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution and the occupation of the US Embassy.

In recent years it has secured United Nations Security Council backing for sanctions aimed at the nuclear program Washington says is aimed at making a bomb but which Iran insists is purely peaceful.

Last year Washington started blacklisting senior Iranian officials it says were involved in a violent crackdown of protests against the 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The EU published a similar blacklist in April. Both blacklists impose travel restrictions and asset freezes on the officials named.

Iran rejects accusations from foreign governments and rights groups about its human rights record and denies it used excessive force and repression to crush the post-election protests in 2009. It says US-led wars in its neighbors Iraq and Afghanistan resulted in massive human rights violations.

The nature of the planned Iranian sanctions was not clear, but it is doubtful financial measure would have much impact since US officials are unlikely to have assets in the Islamic Republic.

Separately, Iranian police have launched a new crackdown on satellite dishes which, although illegal, are still a common sight on rooftops across the Islamic Republic.

Tehran police confiscated more than 2,000 satellite dishes in a single day last week in a battle against receivers which let Iranians see a huge range of uncensored entertainment and international news not available on state-controlled channels.

“The police’s priority is first to confiscate dishes which are visible ... and confront the owners,” Tehran-e Emrouz daily quoted Tehran’s deputy police chief Ahmadreza Radan as saying.

Iran outlawed satellite dishes in the mid-1990s as part of efforts to curb what it considers Western cultural aggression. The ban was largely ignored under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s predecessor Mohammad Khatami who tried to increase social freedoms after he was elected in 1997.

However, hard-liners have pressed for renewed restrictions after Ahmadinejad took office in 2005.

As a part of a campaign to combat “cultural aggression,” police will also confront those who do not strictly adhere to the Islamic dress code as well as people walking their dogs or even carrying them in their cars.

Dogs are considered “unclean” under Islamic tradition but, while relatively rare in Iran, some people do keep them as pets and some conservative clerics want them banned completely.

While hard-liners have applauded the satellite crackdown, some officials have expressed concern about police intruding into people’s private lives.

Students news agency ISNA quoted a judge, Mohammad Hossein Shamlou-Ahmadi, as saying police had no legal right to enter homes to take satellite dishes.

“Searching a house or issuing a warrant just to confiscate satellite equipment is against the law and whoever issues the warrant can be prosecuted and punished,” he said.

Salman Zaker, a member of parliament’s legal affairs committee told Tehran-e Emrouz: “It is not right to say satellite is bad and whoever watches it should be confronted. We should also talk explicitly about its benefits as well as its drawbacks.”

Iranian fans of foreign television, meanwhile, said they would not be stopped.

“It is the third time that they have come to our building and confiscated the dishes, but like the other neighbors we order a new set each time,” Mahsa, a computer engineer in Tehran told Reuters, requesting her family name not be used.

“You really can’t spend your time watching repetitive (official) TV programs.”