European Union leaders agreed late on Wednesday on new sanctions against Iran for its direct attack on Israel.
The EU has decided to “implement sanctions against Iran”, said the President of the European Council Carlos Michel he told reporters in the early morning hours of Thursday, after the first day of a two-day summit.
“The idea is to reach the companies needed for the drones, for the missiles,” he said. More details will be finalized, he added.
“The European Union will take further restrictive measures against Iran, particularly in relation to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and missiles,” the EU leaders’ statement said.
Wednesday and Thursday’s EU summit was originally intended to focus on the bloc’s economy and its competitiveness. But growing tensions in the Middle East pushed the economic discussion onto the second day’s agenda.
EU leaders appealed for calm as Israel assessed a response to Iran’s drone and missile attack on Saturday.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Israel not to retaliate against Iran with a “massive attack of its own” upon its arrival.
Scholz called on Israel to now use its successful defense against Iran’s missile and drone attack “to strengthen its own position throughout the region.” On this basis, “a corresponding military response would certainly not be appropriate,” he said.
Iran said the drone and missile attacks were in retaliation for the killing of high-ranking Iranian officials in a missile attack on Iran’s embassy in Syria earlier this month.
Sanctions could be imposed through a regime created after Iran began supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine by supplying drones to Moscow.
These sanctions banned the export of components used for the construction and production of unmanned aerial vehicles to Iran, and could be expanded to hinder Iran’s production of missiles.
Israel’s calls to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite unit of the Iranian military, as a terrorist organization are more difficult to satisfy.
The IRGC would first have to be prosecuted by a national authority for terrorist activities under EU law to trigger this sanction. Scholz said, however, that a recent court ruling in the EU concerning the activities of the IRGC is being examined by EU officials.
This could pave the way for a terrorist designation for the IRGC, Scholz said. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said his country would support sanctions on the IRGC.
In addition to the Middle East, EU leaders also discussed Ukraine’s need for air defense weapons with the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who participated in the meeting via video call.
In his speech to EU leaders, Zelensky called for greater support against Russian airstrikes.
He drew a comparison between the support Israel received when US, French and UK jets helped shoot down Iranian drones and missiles and the help, or lack thereof, that Ukraine receives against Russian bombing.
“Here in Ukraine, in our part of Europe, unfortunately, we do not have the level of defense that we all saw in the Middle East a few days ago,” he said. “Our Ukrainian sky and the sky of our neighbors deserve the same security,” he added.
The EU leaders’ statement “underlines the need to urgently provide air defense to Ukraine and to accelerate and intensify the delivery of all necessary military assistance, including artillery ammunition and missiles.”
Germany has already delivered two Patriot surface-to-air missile systems to Ukraine and will deliver one more, Scholz said.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the Netherlands and Denmark are working together to supply F16 fighter jets.
“We know we have to do more than we have done so far to support Ukraine now. This applies in particular to all necessary air defense capabilities,” said Scholz.
