BRUSSELS — European Union foreign ministers, meeting here on Monday, are expected to approve a new round of tough sanctions on Iran related with the human rights situation and the supply of arms to Russia, said the EU’s foreign policy chief.
“We are going to approve a very, very tough package of sanctions on Iran,” EU High Representative Josep Borrell told journalists ahead of the meeting. “(The EU) will take any action we can to support young women and peaceful demonstrators.”
Borrell said that on Friday evening he had a long conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossien Amirabdullahian and talked about the two recent executions and about the sanctions that are going to be taken Monday both for humanitarian reasons and the support for Russia.
Iran continues to maintain that they haven’t been delivering drones to Russia since the start of the war and they don’t plan to send rockets to Russia, he said.
“It was not an easy conversation with him. We talked about what’s happening in the country, the supply of arms to Russia and two people who have been executed with eh EU will condemn strongly,” said the EU’s foreign policy chief.
“The EU will take any action it can in order to support women in Iran and peaceful demonstrators and the rejection of this death penalty,” he added.
A package of new sanctions is on the agenda for Iranian individuals and organizations over human rights abuses in Tehran’s deadly crackdown on protesters and its supply of drones to Russia.
The Islamic Republic Monday publicly hanged a second protester arrested last month, which might force the EU to be tougher in its decisions.
New sanctions against Russia are also on the agenda, however, it remained unclear whether Hungary would block some decisions, resorting to what diplomats denounced as “blackmail diplomacy” due to a dispute over blocked EU funds for Budapest.
“There is agreement, in principle, but there’s also the big elephant in the room,” a senior EU diplomat told reporters, referring to Budapest’s use of its veto power. “It’s a type of blackmail diplomacy that we would rather not see but it is what it is.” — Agencies