Senators Call for More European Sanctions on Iran

Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., urged European officials this week to increase sanctions on Iran for supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, Politico reported.

In a letter, the senators asked the EU to emulate France, Germany and the U.K. by imposing restrictions on Iranian airlines and other entities that have facilitated weapons transfers to Russia, including the recently confirmed shipment of short-range ballistic missiles. They also recommended that the EU and the U.K. designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, and that France, Germany and the U.K., with EU support, push to restore a global United Nations arms embargo on Iran’s missile program.

The Group of 7 nations and the EU said last week they are preparing new sanctions in response to recent Iranian weapons transfers to Russia (see 2409160005 and 2409130036).