The European Union is preparing a new round of sanctions against Iran for its domestic crackdown on demonstrators taking part in multiple pro-democracy protests following the death in custody of young Mahsa Amini last September.
According to diplomatic sources confirmed to Europa Press, the EU-27 plan to adopt new measures against Tehran in view of the meeting of foreign ministers of the bloc next Monday, in restrictions that will be framed in the sanctions regime for human rights violations.
In this way, the EU will redouble the pressure against the Iranian regime after the latest cases of arrests and death sentences against demonstrators in the context of the massive protests that have been taking place in the country in recent months. Humanitarian organizations estimate that more than 500 demonstrators have been killed in the violent repression of the protests, while Tehran has applied the death penalty against four people and more than a hundred are facing death sentences.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels on Monday, EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said the situation in Iran would be on the agenda of ministers next week, noting that «unfortunately» events in Iran «are not going in the right direction».
Stano recalled the last rounds of sanctions approved by the EU-27 against the internal violence of the Iranian authorities and for its military support to Russia, which supplies kamikaze drones that Moscow uses in the war in Ukraine, and pointed out that the EU always remains open to expand these measures depending on the evolution of events.
THE NUCLEAR AGREEMENT IS NOT DEAD, BUT BLOCKED Likewise, the Foreign Affairs spokesman referred to the situation in which the negotiations to obtain the return of the United States to the nuclear agreement with Iran, as well as full respect on the part of Teheran, are in.
In Stano’s words, the pact «is not dead» but he did admit that the talks are «stranded». «Efforts to break the blockade continue but the accompanying situation, the persecution of demonstrators, executions and military support for Russia does not make it easy,» he said, insisting that the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, is in constant contact with the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hosein Amirabdolahian.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
