EU agrees to sanction Iran for supplying Russia with suicide drones
Brussels | The European Union agreed on a fresh round of sanctions on Iran on Wednesday, this time over providing drones that Russia has used to strike battlefields and civilian targets in Ukraine, according to three EU diplomats.
The sanctions will target the company that manufactured the Shahed-136 drones, diplomats said, as well as three individuals. They have been agreed on by national ambassadors. To enter into force, they must be greenlighted by all EU member countries through a written procedure, which is expected to conclude Thursday.
Firefighters work after a drone attack on buildings in Kyiv, Ukraine. AP
Iran has denied supplying Russia with drones for use in Ukraine. Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said Monday that the EU was looking for “concrete evidence” of Iran’s role in the drone strikes in Ukraine.
The latest sanctions add to other punitive measures the bloc has imposed on Iran for reasons unrelated to the Ukraine war. Earlier this week, the EU added two entities and several individuals, including two key figures in Iran’s morality police and the country’s information minister, to its sanctions list over the recent violent crackdown on peaceful anti-government protesters.
Late on Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, called Russia’s targeted strikes on Ukraine’s civilians and infrastructure “war crimes.”
“The international order is clear. These are war crimes,” von der Leyen told European lawmakers gathered in the French city of Strasbourg.
“Targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure with the clear aim to cut off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating with winter coming — these are acts of pure terror.”