BERLIN: EU foreign ministers will Monday discuss slapping Iran with new sanctions over its deadly crackdown on protests and support for Russia in Ukraine, member state Lithuania said.
“We will be suggesting additional (Iranian) listings that could be added... to the sanctions list,” said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis on Friday during a visit to Berlin.
“It would have two parts — for Iranian participation in the war on Russia’s side in Ukraine, but also for the human rights abuses that are happening in the cities of Iran.”
A senior EU official, speaking anonymously, said foreign ministers would likely adopt sanctions at the Brussels meeting on Monday over the repression of protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini.
She died in the custody of the morality police on September 16, three days after falling into a coma following her arrest in Tehran for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic’s hijab dress rules for women.
A European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that about 30 names were set to be added to the sanctions list.
The EU had already imposed sanctions against Iran on October 17, targeting the morality police and 11 officials including the country’s telecommunications minister over alleged involvement in repressing the protests.
Transfers of drones from Iran to Russia would also be discussed, said the EU official.
Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Russia of using Iranian-made drones in recent weeks to carry out attacks in Ukraine.
Last weekend, Iran admitted for the first time that it sent drones to Russia but insisted they were supplied to its ally before Moscow invaded Ukraine.
The EU is also seeking to confirm reports that Iran had transferred missiles to Russia to be used in Ukraine, the official said.
“If that is proven to be true... we will take action in the form of sanctions,” the official said.
Iran has denied supplying missiles to Russia, calling the accusations “completely false.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had already indicated earlier this week the 27-member EU was poised to adopt new sanctions, prompting Tehran to accuse Germany of being “provocative” and “undiplomatic.”
After talks with her Lithuanian counterpart, Baerbock pushed back, saying that “it is our European understanding that observance of universal human rights is not a national matter, but a universal matter.”
EU to discuss new Iran sanctions Monday: Lithuania
https://arab.news/jqcne
EU to discuss new Iran sanctions Monday: Lithuania
- "We will be suggesting additional (Iranian) listings that could be added... to the sanctions list," said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis
- Foreign ministers would likely adopt sanctions at the Brussels meeting on Monday
Venezuelans await political prisoners’ release after government vow
- Rights groups estimate there are 800 to 1,200 political prisoners held in Venezuela
CARACAS: Venezuelans waited Sunday for more political prisoners to be freed as ousted president Nicolas Maduro defiantly claimed from his US jail cell that he was “doing well” after being seized by US forces a week ago.
The government of interim president Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday began to release prisoners jailed under Maduro in a gesture of openness, after pledging to cooperate with Washington over its demands for Venezuelan oil.
The government said a “large” number would be released — but rights groups and the opposition say only about 20 have walked free since, including several prominent opposition figures.
Rights groups estimate there are 800 to 1,200 political prisoners held in Venezuela.
Rodriguez, vice president under Maduro, said Venezuela would take “the diplomatic route” with Washington, after Trump claimed the United States was “in charge” of the South American country.
“Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners. Thank you!” Trump said in a post late Saturday on his Truth Social platform.
“I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done.”
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured in a dramatic January 3 raid and taken to New York to stand trial on drug-trafficking and weapons charges, to which they pleaded not guilty.
Anxiety over prisoners
A detained police officer accused of “treason” against Venezuela died in state custody after a stroke and heart attack, the state prosecution service confirmed on Sunday.
Opposition groups said the man, Edison Jose Torres Fernandez, 52, had shared messages critical of Maduro’s government.
“We directly hold the regime of Delcy Rodriguez responsible for this death,” Justice First, part of the Venezuelan opposition alliance, said on X.
Families on Saturday night held candlelight vigils outside El Rodeo prison east of Caracas and El Helicoide, a notorious jail run by the intelligence services, holding signs with the names of their imprisoned relatives.
Prisoners include Freddy Superlano, a close ally of opposition figurehead Maria Corina Machado. He was jailed after challenging Maduro’s widely contested re-election in 2024.
“He is alive — that was what I was most afraid about,” Superlano’s wife Aurora Silva told reporters.
“He is standing strong and I am sure he is going to come out soon.”
Maduro meanwhile claimed he was “doing well” in jail in New York, his son Nicolas Maduro Guerra said in a video released Saturday by his party.
The ex-leader’s supporters rallied in Caracas on Saturday but the demonstrations were far smaller than Maduro’s camp had mustered in the past, and top figures from his government were notably absent.
The caretaker president has moved to placate the powerful pro-Maduro base by insisting Venezuela is not “subordinate” to Washington.
Pressure on Cuba
Vowing to secure US access to Venezuela’s vast crude reserves, Trump pressed top oil executives at a White House meeting on Friday to invest in Venezuela, but was met with a cautious reception.
Experts say Venezuela’s oil infrastructure is creaky after years of mismanagement and sanctions.
Washington has also confirmed that US envoys visited Caracas on Friday to discuss reopening their embassy there.
Trump on Sunday pressured Caracas’s leftist ally Cuba, which has survived in recent years under a US embargo thanks to cheap Venezuelan oil imports.
He urged Cuba to “make a deal” or face unspecified consequences, warning that the flow of Venezuelan oil and money to Havana would stop now that Maduro was gone.
Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel retorted on X that the Caribbean island was “ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood.”
“No one tells us what to do.”
Venezuela’s government in a statement called for “political and diplomatic dialogue” between Washington and Havana.
“International relations should be governed by the principals of international law — non-interference, sovereign equality of states and the right of peoples to govern themselves.”
