The European Union has defended this Monday adopting sanctions against those responsible for the repression of the demonstrations in Iran for the death in custody of the young Mahsa Amini, assuring that this measure must be separate from negotiations with Tehran to restore the nuclear deal.
The bloc’s foreign ministers will respond this Monday with restrictions on a dozen people and entities due to the situation in Iran, where the death in custody of Mahsa Aminithe 22-year-old woman arrested for allegedly wearing the veil wrong, has led to protests violently repressed by Tehran.
Upon arrival at the meeting, the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, has assumed that the Twenty-seven will approve the punitive measures and, in any case, he has been more pessimistic about the progress of the talks for the nuclear pact.
“Negotiations have been stalled for the last few weeks, now I don’t expect any movement, it’s a shame because we were close but we will have to wait“, he has affirmed about the efforts to achieve the return of the United States to the agreement and the total compliance of Iran. In this sense, he has defended that the nuclear agreement is for the benefit of security in the region and of the entire international community, for what “would be nice” to hear about.
“We already have four packages of sanctions against the Iranian regime,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stressed, defending that the EU must respond “to those who know nothing but to use force against innocents.” These statements come after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party, SPD, has called for an end to talks with Iran in response to the crackdown on anti-government protests.
For the head of the Netherlands Foreign Affairs, Wopke Hoekstra, it is “crystal clear” that the EU must support the women who demonstrate in Iran and denounce the attacks against the protests and has asked to differentiate this issue from the nuclear issue. “It’s a separate conversation and it is in the interest of the whole world to have greater nuclear security”, he assessed.
For his part, the Danish minister, Jeppe Kofod, has claimed that sanctions are one of the tools that the EU has to denounce the “atrocities” that are happening in Iran. “They are young people who want their fundamental rights to be respected. The world has to react“, has declared.
