In an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt on Monday 12 January, the High Representative of the Union, Kaja Kallas, warned that she was ready to propose new sanctions against Iran at a time when the regime is cracking down hard on peaceful demonstrators.
“I am prepared to propose additional sanctions in response to the regime’s brutal repression of protesters”, announced Ms Kallas, recalling that the EU had already imposed ‘sweeping’ sanctions on the country, notably against those responsible for human rights violations, the development of its nuclear programme and Teheran’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The situation in Iran will be discussed this Tuesday by the ambassadors of the EU Member States meeting within the Political and Security Committee, as well as at the ‘Foreign Affairs’ Council on 29 January.
While US President Donald Trump said on the evening of Sunday 11 January that a meeting “is being prepared” with the Iranian authorities, the spokesman for the European External Action Service, Anouar el Anouni, explained on Monday 12 January that the EU was “in regular contact with the Iranian authorities through the local presidency of the European Union in Teheran, held this six-month period by Cyprus (sic)” in the absence of an EU delegation on site. Iranian minister Abbas Araghtchi summoned the European heads of mission for an exchange of views on current developments in the country, during which the Europeans expressed their concerns “forcefully”, according to a source at the Quai d’Orsay.
For her part, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, decided to ban all diplomats, staff of diplomatic missions, officials and representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran from entering any European Parliament building, with immediate effect, she announced in a letter to MEPs, seen by Agence Europe. “It cannot be business as usual. This House will not aid in legitimising this regime that has sustained itself through torture, repression and murder”, she explained on X.
According to the NGO Iran Human Rights, at least 648 demonstrators have been killed in Iran since 28 December.
Support for the demonstrators. On Sunday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, warned on X that as the repression intensified and the “loss of innocent lives” continued, the EU was “monitoring the situation carefully”. “Europe stands with the people of Iran in their legitimate fight for freedom”, she promised.
On the evening of Friday 9 January, condemning the use of violence, arbitrary detentions and intimidation tactics by the security forces against demonstrators, Kaja Kallas called, on behalf of the EU, for the immediate release of all those unjustly detained for exercising their fundamental rights.
Ms Kallas had urged the Iranian authorities to respect Iran’s international obligations and to fully guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, as well as the right of access to information, with the restoration of the Internet. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)