SALON

Thursday, Jun 17, 2010 4:20 PM UTC

EU approves new sanctions on Iran

Latest restrictions go beyond U.N. measures, target nuclear technologies

By

Topics: Iran,

European Union leaders on Thursday adopted a new set of sanctions against Iran in a further effort to stall its disputed nuclear program.

The restrictions, which come on top of sanctions already imposed by the U.N. Security Council, were approved during a summit focused primarily on economic issues, spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said.

A statement said the sanctions target dual-use items that could be used as part of a nuclear program, and Iran’s oil and gas industry — including the “prohibition of new investment, technical assistance and transfers of technologies.”

Iran’s shipping and air cargo companies will be banned from operating in EU territory, and new visa bans and asset freezes will be imposed on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The sanctions also encompass trade insurance and financial transactions.

The measures are meant to strengthen other embargoes imposed by the EU in response to past U.N. Security Council resolutions. Last week, the council adopted its own sanctions after Iran rebuffed a plan to suspend uranium enrichment and swap its stockpiles of low-enriched uranium for fuel rods.

They are also in line with similar measures adopted by the Obama administration, which imposed penalties Wednesday against additional individuals and institutions it says are helping Iran develop its nuclear and missile programs and evade international sanctions.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday that Europe needed to play a full role in the international effort to deal with Iran’s nuclear program.

This means “making sure that we have a strong package of sanctions against Iran,” he said. “We believe it is incredibly important.”

The new EU sanctions will now be passed on to government technical experts to work out the specifics of which companies and products would be targeted, and how. This could be a tricky procedure, given the different economic interests of EU countries involved.

Officials predicted the procedure would last a month before the final list is endorsed by EU foreign ministers at their next meeting at the end of July.

The U.N. is seeking to disrupt the money flow to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Its new sanctions call for an asset freeze on 40 additional companies and organizations involved in nuclear or ballistic missile activities.

The United States, Israel and the EU fear that Iran will continue to upgrade its uranium enrichment program until it can produce a nuclear weapon. Iran says it seeks to develop fuel only for its energy and research reactors, and that it has the right to enrich uranium under the international nonproliferation treaty.

Iran has dismissed the impact of sanctions, vowing to expand its atomic research program.

On Thursday, the country’s defense minister said the new sanctions would not affect Iran’s armed forces because the country is militarily self-sufficient.

“We are not seeking arms. We have the capability to export,” Gen. Ahmad Vahidi was quoted as saying on the website of Iran’s state TV.

Iran has been pursuing self-sufficiency in military production since 1992.

The union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, has said the door remains open for negotiations with Iran.

She has on Monday she had invited the country’s top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, to discuss the issue. EU officials said Iran was expected to accept the invitation and that talks could resume later this summer. Ashton said Thursday she was still awaiting a reply.

——

Associated Press writers Robert Wielaard in Brussels and Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report.

More Slobodan Lekic.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 5 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
241 points242 points | 15 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
233 points234 points | 201 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
210 points211 points | 31 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
80 points81 points | 16 comments
vote
Austerity Kills: Brian McArdle, a 57-year-old man who had had two strokes and could barely walk, was found "fit for work" by a government subcontractor, and had his benefits stopped. He died the next day.
60 points61 points | 3 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations