The EU Council sanctioned, on Thursday 20 October, three Iranian individuals and one entity in connection with the use of Iranian drones in Russian attacks in Ukraine.
They are Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, who oversees the military’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programme, General Sayed Hojatollah Qureishi, responsible for negotiating the agreement with Russia on the supply of Iranian-made UAVs for use in the war of aggression against Ukraine, and Brigadier General Saeed Aghajani, Commander of the UAV Command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force. Shahed Aviation Industries, a company linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ aerospace force in Iran and responsible for the design and development of the Shahed series of Iranian UAVs, is also sanctioned.
Their assets are frozen and EU citizens and companies are prohibited from making funds available to them. The individuals are also subject to a travel ban within the EU.
In a statement, the EU Council also announced its intention to impose restrictive measures against two other persons and two entities on the same grounds. According to an EU source, these individuals and entities are already on various EU sanctions lists, but the EU wants to put them on sanctions lists related to the situation in Ukraine as well.
According to draft conclusions dated 19 October and seen by EUROPE, the European Council is expected to strongly condemn the Iranian authorities’ military support for Russia’s war of aggression, “which must stop”. It should also welcome the adoption of sanctions.
Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian explained, in an appeal to the High Representative of the Union, that Iran’s policy towards the war in Ukraine was “to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine, not to send weapons to the warring parties, to stop the war and to stop the displacement of the population”. “We are against war and firmly reject the delivery of drones to Russia to be used in the war with Ukraine”, he added, according to a statement from the Iranian foreign ministry. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)