Iran condemns ‘planned’ EU sanctions as ‘unlawful’

Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian has condemned “planned” sanctions against his country over the major drone and missile attack on Israel earlier this month as “unlawful” and “regrettable.”

Iran had exercised its right to self-defence with the attack, Amirabdollahian wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday. He called for sanctions to be imposed against Israel.

At a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, the foreign ministers of the 27 EU member states instructed EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell to submit concrete proposals for sanctions.

These should make it possible to impose further trade restrictions on Iran in order to make it more difficult for the country to build and develop drones and missiles.

There are also plans to impose sanctions on individuals, organisations and companies involved in the production of drones and missiles and their delivery to Iran’s allies in the Middle East.

The moves are in response to Iran’s unprecedented direct missile attack on Israel 10 days ago. It followed a suspected Israeli attack on the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus at the beginning of the month.

In the latter incident, two generals and five other members of the powerful Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) were among those killed.

Israel carried out a retaliatory strike in the province of Isfahan on Friday, reportedly hitting an air base.