Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has censured the European Union over tightening sanctions on the country in reprisal for the recent extensive missile and drone strikes against Israel, saying the bloc should not yield to Washington’s demands to appease the occupying Tel Aviv regime.
“It is regrettable to see the EU deciding quickly to apply more unlawful restrictions against Iran just because Iran exercised its right to self-defense in the face of Israel’s reckless aggression,” Amir-Abdollahian wrote in a post published on the social media platform X on Tuesday.
He added, “The EU should not follow Washington’s advice to satisfy the criminal Israeli regime.”
The top Iranian diplomat also lamented the EU’s reactions in the face of the Israeli regime’s genocide against Palestinians, describing them as “almost nothing more than hollow words.”
Amir-Abdollahian finally called on the EU to apply sanctions on Israel instead.
The remarks came a day after EU foreign ministers agreed to impose new sanctions on Iran that would cover the alleged supply of missiles to other countries and entities following the large-scale Operation True Promise against the Israeli-occupied territories.
Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles on the occupied Palestinian territories in retaliation against a deadly Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Damascus.
On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that members of the bloc had agreed in principle during a meeting in Luxembourg to expand the EU’s current drone-related sanctions on Iran to cover missiles and their transfers out of the country.
“We have reached a political agreement in order to enlarge and expand the existing drone (sanctions) regime in order to cover missiles and their potential ... transfer to Russia,” Borrell said, adding that the bans would also be expanded beyond Russia to cover alleged supply of missiles to regional groups deemed to be allied to Iran.
Iran has denied it has supplied drones or missiles to regional groups while reiterating on numerous occasions that the drones supplied to Russia which have reportedly been used in its war against Ukraine were delivered to Moscow long before the Ukraine war started in February 2022.