BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU countries have agreed to sanctions on Iran following its brutal crackdown on protests over the death of Mahsa Amini and foreign ministers are due to adopt them next Monday, diplomats said .
Earlier Wednesday, the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that “the time has come to punish those responsible” in Iran “for the repression of women”.
“This shocking violence cannot go unaddressed,” she said.
Four European diplomats told AFP that a political agreement had been reached on Wednesday on the sanctions and that the meeting of foreign ministers to be held in Luxembourg next Monday was to formalize them.
There were no details on the impending sanctions, but the United States, Britain and Canada have previously separately targeted the Iranian regime’s security arms.
The United States and Britain have imposed sanctions on Iran’s so-called morality police, which last month arrested 22-year-old Amini.
She was taken unconscious from a police station to the hospital where she died.
His family, protesters in Iran, Western officials and rights groups have all called his death a “murder”.
Iran denies this and says she died of natural causes related to infant surgery.
Canada said last week that it would permanently deny entry to more than 10,000 members of the Iranian regime, including those belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps which is carrying out the crackdown.
European lawmakers have called on the bloc to put Iranian officials, including those linked to the morality police, on a blacklist banning travel to Europe and freezing all assets in the EU.
In April 2011, the European Union already imposed sanctions on Iran for human rights abuses, with further measures added in March 2012 to end the sale of any equipment the regime might use to repress or electronically spy on the Iranian population.
The latest EU sanctions will come at a delicate time, as the EU plays a coordinating role in talks to revive a 2015 deal that curbed Iran’s nuclear activities.
Those talks are at an impasse, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
Earlier Wednesday, the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that “the time has come to punish those responsible” in Iran “for the repression of women”.
“This shocking violence cannot go unaddressed,” she said.
Four European diplomats told AFP that a political agreement had been reached on Wednesday on the sanctions and that the meeting of foreign ministers to be held in Luxembourg next Monday was to formalize them.
There were no details on the impending sanctions, but the United States, Britain and Canada have previously separately targeted the Iranian regime’s security arms.
The United States and Britain have imposed sanctions on Iran’s so-called morality police, which last month arrested 22-year-old Amini.
She was taken unconscious from a police station to the hospital where she died.
His family, protesters in Iran, Western officials and rights groups have all called his death a “murder”.
Iran denies this and says she died of natural causes related to infant surgery.
Canada said last week that it would permanently deny entry to more than 10,000 members of the Iranian regime, including those belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps which is carrying out the crackdown.
European lawmakers have called on the bloc to put Iranian officials, including those linked to the morality police, on a blacklist banning travel to Europe and freezing all assets in the EU.
In April 2011, the European Union already imposed sanctions on Iran for human rights abuses, with further measures added in March 2012 to end the sale of any equipment the regime might use to repress or electronically spy on the Iranian population.
The latest EU sanctions will come at a delicate time, as the EU plays a coordinating role in talks to revive a 2015 deal that curbed Iran’s nuclear activities.
Those talks are at an impasse, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
