The European Council of Ministers yesterday extended sanctions against Iran until April 2020 in response to “serious human rights violations”.
The Council said in a statement that “these measures consist of a travel ban and an asset freeze against 82 people and one entity, and a ban on exports to Iran of equipment which might be used for internal repression and of equipment for monitoring telecommunications.”
The council imposed the human rights sanctions against Iran for the first time in 2011, and renews them annually.
The council lifted all nuclear-related economic and financial EU sanctions against Iran in 2016 following the signing of a deal between Iran and the P5+1 countries.
After US President Donald Trump came to office in 2017, he withdrew from the “defective” nuclear deal and unilaterally reimposed “unprecedented sanctions” on Tehran.
