(Original title: EU member states failed to reach an agreement on the ninth round of sanctions against Russia, Iran is also on the sanctions list)
News from the Financial Associated Press on December 13 (edited by Niu Zhanlin)On Monday, local time, the EU Foreign Ministers’ Meeting was held in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. EU Foreign and Security Policy High Representative Borrell said at a press conference after the meeting that EU member states had discussed the ninth round of sanctions against Russia, but did not agree.
He also said discussions would continue and hoped to have a result this week. We will announce again at a later date, there is still some work to be done, and hopefully the ninth round of sanctions against Russia will be agreed this week.
Borelli claimed that while countries agreed in principle to add about 200 individuals and entities to the sanctions list, differences remained on the overall sanctions package.
On the same day, the European Council announced that five Iranian entities and 24 individuals were added to the sanctions list, mainly because Iran provided drones to Russia.
According to an EU document, sanctions targets include Iranian companies involved in the research, design and manufacture of drone components, as well as senior Iranian officials responsible for exporting unmanned aerial systems or training the Russian military (drones).
Western countries say they continue to see Iran supplying drones to Russia and believe Tehran will soon supply Russia with ballistic missiles as well.
However, the Iranian side denied this, saying that it had exported a small number of drones to Russia before the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Russia has also denied that its military has used Iranian drones.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Khanani said at a news conference on Monday that Moscow’s defense cooperation with Tehran does not target any third country, including Kiev. He reiterated that Tehran was not a party to the conflict in Ukraine and was not involved in military operations.
Kanani said: “The solution to this crisis is political dialogue, which is necessary to establish peace and end war. We have reiterated many times that no arms or military assistance has been provided to any party in this conflict. .”
Ukrainian and EU officials, however, believe that Iranian-made drones have played a key role in a series of large-scale Russian airstrikes in Ukraine recently.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said that although sanctions have been imposed on Iran and the situation is quite tense, people hope to find a way to advance the Iran nuclear agreement, which is meaningful to Iran and other countries in the world.