Iran: EU approves sanctions after repression. Tehran: "We will react"

According to reports, the EU Foreign Affairs Council has approved a

linked to the repression of the latest protests. 

The restrictive measures will affect eleven people and four Iranian entities.

They will be subject to a visa ban and an asset freeze by the EU.

Among the recipients of the sanctions is "the so-called moral police, a word that is not really appropriate when one sees the crimes that are being committed," said German Foreign Minister

.

In the event of EU sanctions, "Iran will react proportionately and reciprocally", said the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Nasser Kanani, as reported by the

news agency , calling on Brussels to have a "reasonable" attitude. with Tehran.

"We prevent them from having unreasonable and intrusive behavior," Kanani said of the sanctions the EU has made it known it wants to impose on Iran for the repression of ongoing demonstrations.

Upon his arrival at the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg, the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy,

, had announced "a package of sanctions on the table to support the brave women" in Iran "and the demonstrators. approve this package ".

Today "we will make it clear that we target those who" in Iran "have used brute force against citizens, women, men, young people, just for the fact that they want to live their lives as we do, in freedom and peace", said German minister Annalena Baerbock, arriving in Luxembourg.

"And therefore there will be a specific package, here in the Council, on which I hope we will all agree together to hit those who know no other answer than the use of force against innocent citizens".

Eight dead in Evin prison, Alessia is fine

Meanwhile, the toll provided by the judicial authorities - with eight dead inmates - rises from the fire that broke out on Friday in the Iranian prison of Evin.

source said

.

Alessia Piperno, the Italian girl arrested last September 28 in the capital, is also in the detention facility.

Yesterday the Farnesina, in contact with the Italian embassy in Tehran, reported that the young woman is fine.

The fire would have been caused by a riot of the inmates.

Hundreds of those arrested during the protests that inflamed Iran after the death of the young Mahsa Amin are held in this prison.

Ukraine, EU measures against Iran if it supplies weapons

EU foreign ministers should also start discussing the possibility of imposing sanctions against Iran in the event that Tehran handed over weapons, "especially drones", to Russia after the war in Ukraine began. .

This was stated by Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, on the sidelines of the Council in Luxembourg. 

In addition to the ongoing repressions in Iran against demonstrations triggered by the killing of a young woman by the religious police for not wearing the hijab properly, Asselborn explains, "another point is the war in Ukraine. After 24 February Iranians have transferred weapons, especially drones? We control, with our own means. The Foreign Minister has formally said that this is not the case. But if we see, with analysis, that this is true, then perhaps we will have to find other ways to put pressure on the regime. "

It is a question that will be discussed "today", he concludes.

Tehran once again rejects the accusation of having supplied

Russia with weapons "for use in the war in Ukraine".

The head of Iranian diplomacy, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, underlined in a statement released by the Foreign Ministry concerning a telephone conversation with the Portuguese Foreign Minister, Joao Gomes Cravinho, that "the Islamic Republic of Iran has not provided and it will not supply any weapons intended for use in the war in Ukraine. "

"We believe that arming one of the two sides of the conflict will prolong the war", he added, before concluding: "We have neither considered nor do we consider the war the right path to take in Ukraine, or in Afghanistan, in Syria or in Yemen".