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
NATO wants ‘automated’ defenses along borders with Russia: German general
- That zone would act as a defensive buffer before any enemy forces advanced into “a sort of hot zone,” said Lowin
- The AI-guided system would reinforce existing NATO weapons and deployed forces, the general said
FRANKFURT: NATO is moving to boost its defenses along European borders with Russia by creating an AI-assisted “automated zone” not reliant on human ground forces, a German general said in comments published Saturday.
That zone would act as a defensive buffer before any enemy forces advanced into “a sort of hot zone” where traditional combat could happen, said General Thomas Lowin, NATO’s deputy chief of staff for operations.
He was speaking to the German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
The automated area would have sensors to detect enemy forces and activate defenses such as drones, semi-autonomous combat vehicles, land-based robots, as well as automatic air defenses and anti-missile systems, Lowin said.
He added, however, that any decision to use lethal weapons would “always be under human responsibility.”
The sensors — located “on the ground, in space, in cyberspace and in the air” — would cover an area of several thousand kilometers (miles) and detect enemy movements or deployment of weapons, and inform “all NATO countries in real time,” he said.
The AI-guided system would reinforce existing NATO weapons and deployed forces, the general said.
The German newspaper reported that there were test programs in Poland and Romania trying out the proposed capabilities, and all of NATO should be working to make the system operational by the end of 2027.
NATO’s European members are stepping up preparedness out of concern that Russia — whose economy is on a war footing because of its conflict in Ukraine — could seek to further expand, into EU territory.
Poland is about to sign a contract for “the biggest anti-drone system in Europe,” its defense minister, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
Kosiniak-Kamysz did not say how much the deal, involving “different types of weaponry,” would cost, nor which consortium would ink the contract at the end of January.
He said it was being made to respond to “an urgent operational demand.”
