EU leaders mull new Iran sanctions after attack on Israel

FILE PHOTO: European Union flags fly outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 1, 2023. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/File Photo

By Tassilo Hummel, Andrew Gray and Sabine Siebold

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Union leaders met on Wednesday to discuss stepping up sanctions against Iran after Tehran’s missile and drone attack on Israel left world powers scrambling to prevent a wider conflict in the Middle East.

The two-day summit in Brussels is the first meeting of the EU’s 27 national leaders since Saturday’s attack, more than six months into the war between Israel and the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Israel has signalled that it will retaliate but has not said how. The EU has urged Israel to exercise restraint while expressing readiness to tighten sanctions on Tehran.

“We have to adjust, to expand them (the sanctions) on Iran,” said French President Emmanuel Macron. “We are in favour of sanctions that can also target all those who help manufacture drones and missiles that were used in the attacks.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was important that Israel “does not respond with a massive attack of its own”.

The leaders were due to condemn the Iranian attack, reaffirm their commitment to Israel’s security and call on all sides to prevent more tensions, including in Lebanon, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters.

“The EU is ready to take further restrictive measures against Iran, notably in relation to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and missiles,” said the statement.

Italy spoke separately ahead of G7 talks in favour of sanctions against arms suppliers linked to the attack against Israel, as well as those behind attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

Iran launched its assault in response to an April 1 strike on its embassy in Damascus which it blamed on Israel. Tel Aviv started its broader military offensive in Gaza after Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

ISRAEL AND UKRAINE

The war in Gaza has exposed differences between EU countries between those closer to Israel and those supportive of Palestine, but on Tuesday there was no major opposition to imposing new sanctions against Iran.

The EU already has multiple sanctions programmes that target Iran – for human rights abuses, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and Tehran’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Several EU states eyed expanding a sanctions scheme that seeks to curb the supply of Iranian drones to Russia to include the provision of missiles and cover deliveries to Iranian proxies in the Middle East.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo backed introducing sanctions against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps but Scholz said that required further legal checks.

On Tuesday, the bloc’s top diplomat said the bloc’s rules meant that could only happen if a national authority in the EU found that the group had been involved in terrorist activity.

Based on political decisions at the summit, EU foreign ministers are due to continue the sanctions work next Monday with the United States and its Western allies hoping new steps against Iran will help limit any Israeli retaliation.

Analysts say, however, Iran is unlikely to face severe punishment because of worries about boosting oil prices and angering top buyer China.

With the Middle East crisis capturing much of the EU’s attention, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed for more help in holding the line against Russia, which unleashed an invasion against its neighbour more than two years ago.

“Here in Ukraine, in our part of Europe, unfortunately, we do not have the level of defence that we all saw in the Middle East a few days ago,” Zelenskiy told the summit, after Israel and its allies mostly shot down the incoming drones and missiles.

“It reflects our current key need – the need for air defence,” he said, according to an EU official, repeating his calls for speedier deliveries of the weapons and ammunition promised to Ukraine.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, Tassilo Hummel, Andrew Gray, Lewis Macdonald, Philip Blenkinsop, Sabine Siebold; Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Gareth Jones and Daniel Wallis)