France Calls The European Union Will Add Sanctions To Iran, Related To Violence Against Protesters And Drones To Russia

Illustration of the European Union. (Wikimedia Commons/Thijs ter Haar)

JAKARTA - The European Union will approve new sanctions targeting Iran, linked to human rights abuses in its crackdown on protesters in the country and drone supplies to Russia, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Speaking to reporters, Anne-Claire Legendre said foreign ministers would discuss new appointments to individuals and entities involved in the crackdown and entities exporting drones to Russia.

Iran said it had delivered a small number of drones to Russia before the invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia denies its troops have used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.

The European Union has imposed two rounds of sanctions since October in the form of asset freezes and travel bans.

The protests, sparked by the death of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on September 16 while in police custody of morality, marked one of the boldest challenges against the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.

So far, 341 demonstrators have died in riots and more than 15,800 have been detained, according to the HRANA activist news agency.

In addition, Western powers also said they were continuing to see the provision of Iranian drones to Russia and believed Tehran would also soon supply ballistic missiles.

Two diplomatic sources said the new sanctions were expected to be approved and adopted on Monday. One source said 21 individuals and one entity would be sanctioned for human rights violations, while there were 10 proposals related to drones.

He added that several countries also expressed concern over the possible transfer of ballistic missiles from Iran to Russia, the diplomat said.