The President of the European Commission emphasized that the sanctions against Iran remain in force unless its behavior in the field of human rights and nuclear program changes.
The European Union will not lift the sanctions imposed on Iran without concrete visible changes, European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday. TASR informs about it based on the report of the DPA agency.
“The essence of the sanctions is that we need real changes in practice before we consider lifting them,” von der Leyen said shortly before the start of the G7 summit in the French spa town of Évian-Les-Bains. She was responding to a question about easing sanctions following the framework agreement between the US and Iran to end the war.
Sanctions and their impact
The President of the EC emphasized that the sanctions were introduced with the aim of achieving changes in behavior and can be canceled if these changes prove to be credible and permanent. However, she noted that the EU imposed sanctions on Iran for human rights violations, including the development of weapons of mass destruction. As a result, economic sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear activities can be lifted independently of sanctions imposed for human rights violations.
Tehran seeks the lifting of sanctions related mainly to the export of oil, oil products and natural gas to the European Union. But the sanctions also apply to other areas, including trade, banking and transport. Many of the restrictions were put in place under the United Nations to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. In addition, the EU imposed sanctions on Iranian organizations and persons accused of supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine and violating human rights.
