EU wants sanctions on Iran

New sanctions are now to hit those responsible for building Iranian drones – and delivering them to Russia.

The EU states have introduced new sanctions against Iran – because of the support of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. The punitive measures are aimed at people and organizations responsible for building and delivering Iranian drones to Russia, several diplomats in Brussels have confirmed.

Entry bans and asset freezes

Specifically, it is planned to sanction five people and three organizations. They are likely to be subject to entry bans and asset freezes. In some cases, penal measures are already being taken against them for other reasons.

The sanctions still have to be formally confirmed in the written procedure in the capitals. This should be done by tomorrow morning. In order to come into force, they then have to be published in the Official Journal of the EU.

EU: Evidence of drones from Iran

Russia had repeatedly attacked Ukraine in the past few days with Iran’s single-use Shahed 136 combat drones. According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, there have been more than 100 drone attacks since last week. The leadership in Tehran denies having supplied Russia.

A spokeswoman for the EU Commission, on the other hand, said that there was now sufficient evidence that the drones came from Iran. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) had already spoken out in favor of further sanctions against the country if the delivery of the drones by the Islamic Republic to Moscow was proven.

The EU had already imposed sanctions on the Iranian moral police and more than a dozen other people and organizations on Monday. However, these punitive measures are not related to the Russian war against Ukraine, but to the death of 22-year-old Iranian Mahsa Amini and the brutal suppression of protests in Iran.

Iran, for its part, imposes sanctions

The Iranian government, for its part, imposed sanctions itself: more than a dozen British people and institutions were put on a terrorist list. Among them are the British secret service GCHQ, Persian-language British media such as BBC Persia and Iran International, as well as politicians and officers, the Foreign Ministry in Tehran said. The sanctioned are now no longer allowed to travel to Iran and if they have assets in Iranian banks, these will be frozen.