EU foreign affairs minister Kaja Kallas has said she is ready to propose more sanctions on Iran over the government's response to protests that has killed hundreds of people.
Brussels has issued a series of sanctions against Tehran for human rights violations, nuclear activities and sales of drones to Russia to use in its war against Ukraine.
“I am prepared to propose additional sanctions in response to the regime’s brutal repression of protesters,” Ms Kallas told news website Politico.
This follows statements of support for protesters from Europe. Speaking during a visit to India on Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz described Iran’s “disproportionate and brutal” violence against protesters as “a sign of weakness.”
“We condemn this violence in the strongest possible terms,” he said.
On Friday, leaders of France, Germany and the UK – the so-called E3 – said they were “deeply concerned about reports of violence by Iranian security forces, and strongly condemn the killing of protesters”.
At the weekend, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that “Europe stands fully behind them.”
Relations between Iran and the E3 soured after UN sanctions against Tehran were reinstated in September.
Iran was weakened by the 12-day war in June, when its nuclear facilities were bombed by Israel and the US.
The mass protests across Iran − sparked by a currency crisis and economic collapse but increasingly aimed at the ruling clerical class − have become one of the most serious challenge to the Islamic Republic since 1979. They have led to solidarity protests in European capitals, including Paris, where more than 2,000 people gathered on Sunday.
There have been more than 540 confirmed deaths in the protests and more than 10,000 arrests, according to the Human Rights Activist News Agency, which is tracking protests in 186 cities across Iran’s 31 provinces.
Communications remain largely cut off, which has made it difficult to track the extent of the protest movement.
“The regime has a track-record of crushing protests, and we see a heavy-handed response by the security forces,” Ms Kallas said in written comments. “Citizens are fighting for a future of their own choosing and risking everything to be heard.”
The US is mulling its response, President Donald Trump has said. Options include military strikes, cyber weapons and more sanctions on Tehran, according to The Wall Street Journal.
