EU, UK restrictive measures against Iran
London announced on Thursday the imposition of new sanctions on Iran, targeting three generals and an arms manufacturing company “responsible for supplying Russia with suicide drones” to bomb Ukraine.
The United Kingdom joined the European Union countries that imposed sanctions on Tehran earlier on Thursday. “By delivering these drones, Iran is showing a relentless pursuit to fight, taking advantage of Russia’s outrageous attacks against Ukrainian civilians,” the British government said in a statement.
The European Union approved sanctions against Iran for its actions in Ukraine. The Czech Presidency of the European Union announced that European Union States had decided to freeze the assets of three individuals and one entity responsible for the supply of drones.
“The EU countries have decided to freeze the assets of three individuals and one entity responsible for the supply of drones, and are also ready to extend the sanctions to four other Iranian entities already on the previous sanctions list,” the presidency said on Twitter.
The sanctions will take effect on Thursday.
The European Union on Wednesday reiterated that Iran was behind the supply of drones to Russia targeting Ukrainian cities.
“We have gathered our own evidence,” said Nabila Mesrali, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
A list seen by Agence France Presse showed that the European Union prepared to impose sanctions on three Iranian military officials, including General Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.
The sanctions also include “Shahed” for the aviation industry, a company linked to the Revolutionary Guard.
Ukraine reported weeks ago that Russia had launched attacks with Iranian Shahed 136 drones, drones whose warheads explode in suicide landings, and Kiev moved to sever ties with Tehran.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian military said it had shot down more than 220 Iranian-made drones in about a month, although Kiev’s bombing by drones on Monday left five dead.
Up to 2023
The US says that providing Iran and Russia with war drones violates UN Security Council Resolution 2231 of 2015, which sponsored a nuclear deal that is now collapsing.
In 2020, the resolution’s ban on Iranian conventional arms sales ended despite attempts by Donald Trump’s previous administration to extend it.
But the resolution prohibits until October 2023 all Iranian arms exports not authorized by the UN Security Council if they are benefiting from ballistic missile capabilities.
“Iran’s supply to Russia of these specific types of drones violates UN Security Council Resolution 2231, a UN Security Council issue,” State Department spokesman Vedent Patel said Wednesday.
The alleged arms transfers come as Iran faces increasing pressure over its crackdown on the country’s largest protests in years after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody by the Morality Police.
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The unrest led to new Western sanctions on Iran and a retreat from U.S. President Joe Biden’s efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal from which Donald Trump withdrew.
Western officials highlighted the Iranian rallies as evidence that Russia, historically one of the world’s largest arms exporters, is depleting its arsenal of battlefield losses.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that the United States has “a lot of evidence” of Russian use of Iranian war drones in Ukraine, stressing that such evidence is irrefutable even if Tehran continues to “lie and deny.”
“We will not hesitate to impose sanctions and other appropriate measures against all those involved in these operations to transfer” the drones from Iran to Russia.
According to a French diplomatic source, “the UN Security Council will hold a meeting on Friday, at the request of France and Mexico, on the protection of civilians, to discuss the issue of indiscriminate strikes against civilians which may amount to ‘war crimes’.”
