The European Union's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas will present fresh sanctions against Iran to member states as early as today to punish Tehran for its violent crackdown on protesters, two diplomats familiar with the discussion told Euronews.
The proposed measures would fall under the EU’s human rights sanctions regime against Iran and would add to a wide range of travel bans and asset freezes already in place.
At the start of the week, Kallas signalled that she was prepared to pursue fresh sanctions in response to the crackdown, which has claimed thousands of lives since protests began nearly two weeks ago over a deepening currency crisis.
At least 2,571 people have been killed in the protests, a US-based human rights group reported on Wednesday, although unofficial figures suggest the real figure could be five times more. US President Donald Trump signaled the "killings are stopping" and there would be no executions citing unidentified sources or elaborating on the details.
The region was bracing for a military intervention from the US after President Trump called on protesters to resist on Monday, indicating that American help "was on its way."
The new EU measures would expand an extensive sanctions regime imposed on Iran, primarily involving travel bans and asset freezes in response to serious human rights violations, nuclear proliferation activities, and military support for Russia, which routinely uses Iranian drone technology to attack Ukraine.
To date, the EU has sanctioned more than 230 Iranians, including the country’s interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, more 40 other entities and members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, even though it is not on the EU's terror list - a designation that is being considered, although a formal decision has not been made yet.
EU foreign affairs ministers are due to discuss the proposed sanctions at their next meeting on January 29, hosted by Kaja Kallas.
