EU foreign ministers adopted sanctions on Iran for supplying Russia with ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine on Monday, diplomats told dpa.
The EU sanctions target companies and individuals involved in Iran’s ballistic missile programme and the delivery of these and other weapons to Russia.
The European Union had previously warned Iran several times against passing on ballistic missiles to Moscow and views the step as breaching a new taboo.
Iran has vehemently denied supplying Russia with the weapons. According to Tehran, the country has a strategic cooperation with Moscow, although this is not related to the war in Ukraine. Tehran maintains that providing military aid to warring parties is inhumane.
One of the targets is Iranian state airline Iran Air. Britain, Germany and France have already announced they are working on sanctions targeting the company.
The EU sanctions, including a freeze on assets held in the bloc and a travel ban on individuals, will enter into force upon their publication in the EU Official Journal, a register of EU laws.
EU foreign ministers are meeting to debate the escalating conflict in the Middle East and the EU’s efforts to support Ukraine against the Russian invasion, despite Hungarian resistance.
The bloc also plans to hit Russian actors and organizations accused of destabilizing Moldova’s democracy and security with new sanctions ahead of a crunch referendum on EU membership later this month.
The role of Iran and its regional proxies Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza will be in focus at the foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
The EU is struggling to find a response that could help stop the conflict from spiralling into a full-scale regional war in the Middle East.
Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell voiced frustration over the bloc’s discordance on an increasingly tense Middle East conflict, especially in relation to criticism of Israel.
“It takes too long to say some things which are quite evident,” he said upon arrival.
“It’s quite evident that we should be against Israeli attacks against UNIFIL, especially because our soldiers are there,” he said, referring to a joint EU statement on recent attacks on the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, issued on the eve of the gathering.
Borrell also said that EU countries are at odds over arms deliveries to Israel, after Spain called for an embargo.
“Member states are strongly divided,” he said, adding that other EU countries are in favour of delivering more weapons to Israel.
Another major issue is Hungary’s year-and-a-half-long blockade of a key EU military aid policy for Ukraine, the European Peace Facility (EPF), worth €6.6 billion ($7.2 billion).
Budapest does not want to send arms to Ukraine, believing that doing so only prolongs the war.
“Frankly speaking, it’s a lot of time, it’s a lot of money, and it’s undermining our political will of supporting Ukraine on any front,” an EU official said in a sign of growing EU impatience with Hungary.
The bloc’s diplomatic arm, the European External Action Service, has devised a plan to make contributions to the EPF fund voluntary, instead of mandatory, as a technical workaround to Hungary’s opposition.
An EU diplomat said that Hungary has shown a willingness to agree to this solution.
New Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha spoke with EU foreign ministers via video link. Borrell welcomed his contribution in a post on X and promised new deliveries of weapons for Ukraine.
British Foreign Minister David Lammy is also in Luxembourg, the first time a British foreign minister has attended a gathering of EU foreign ministers alone since Britain left the EU in 2020.
