France was pushing for the European Union to “target senior officials and hold them responsible for their actions” over Iran’s repression of protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, foreign minister Catherine Colonna told parliament Tuesday.
Proposed sanctions include “freezing their assets and their right to travel”, Colonna said, criticising Tehran officials who she said “repress (protests) on the one hand and send many of their own children to live in the West on the other”.
Citing diplomatic sources, Germany’s Der Spiegel had reported Monday that Paris was working with Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic on new sanctions against Tehran.
Amini, 22, was pronounced dead on September 16, days after the notorious morality police detained the Kurdish Iranian for allegedly breaching rules requiring women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes.
Anger over her death has sparked the biggest wave of protests to rock Iran in almost three years and a state crackdown that has seen scores of protesters killed and more than 1,000 arrested.
US President Joe Biden Monday vowed “further costs on perpetrators of violence against peaceful protesters”.
The unrest has overshadowed diplomatic efforts to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers which had come close to a breakthrough in recent months before stalling again.
