EU Extends Sanctions on Iran by Another Year
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The European Union (EU) prolonged its anti-Tehran sanctions until April 2018 over alleged claims of "serious human rights violations”.
In a statement on Tuesday, the 28-member bloc extended by a year its travel ban and an asset freeze on 82 Iranian people and one entity, as well as a ban on exports to Iran of equipment for monitoring telecommunications and other gear, according to Reuters.
It added that the blacklisted names would be published on Wednesday in the EU's Official Journal.
The EU imposed the restrictions on Iran for the first time in 2011.
Back in August, Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani proposed that the Islamic Republic and Europe can begin discussions about human rights, provided that Iran would also have the chance to question the shortcomings of Europeans regarding human rights.
“I suggest that the (Judiciary’s) Human Rights Council, the Foreign Ministry and the Supreme National Security Council pave the way for talks with European countries (on human rights),” Ayatollah Amoli Larijani said at the time.
He underlined that the US must be excluded from any such discussions because “Americans are only after deception.”
