EU countries cannot agree on whether to impose new sanctions against Tehran, The Wall Street Journal reports.
France, Germany, the Netherlands and several other European countries have called for sanctions against Iran for supplying missiles and military equipment to its Middle Eastern allies. In February, they addressed this issue to the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell. He responded that new anti-Iran sanctions could lead to “the unification of two theatres of war”, which could have “unforeseen consequences”. Josep Borrell said:
“It is crucial to carefully assess the potential impact of further measures to avoid that EU intervention could be interpreted as an escalation or jeopardise other important EU policy objectives, such as containing Iran’s nuclear programme, which is more urgent than ever.”
The EU placed Hamas on the list of terrorist organisations many years ago and it is already subject to a number of sanctions. As for Iran, the EU decided last October to keep in place its sanctions related to the Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The JCPOA was concluded in 2015 between Iran on one side and the US, Russia, China and three European parties – France, Germany and the UK – on the other. The US withdrew from the deal in 2018. Since then, there have been several rounds of talks in Vienna aimed at restoring the agreement, but it has not yet been possible to get closer to reaching agreements.
