EU to expand sanctions on those responsible for blocking Hormuz
According to two unnamed EU diplomats speaking to Reuters, the European Union will broaden the scope of its Iran sanctions to target individuals responsible for obstructing the Strait of Hormuz.
“There was a political agreement among ambassadors that we indeed would change the criteria in Iran’s sanctions regime so that we could also list persons and entities that are responsible for the obstruction of the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” one of the diplomats said, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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A second diplomatic source said the European External Action Service would need a few weeks to prepare any new listings.
The service is in charge of placing people and companies under sanctions while the European Commission handles sectorwide restrictions.
Tehran closed the strait after the US-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28. The move cut off roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.
In January, the EU designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a “terrorist organisation”, and in March, it listed Iranian officials, accusing them of human rights violations.
More than a dozen tankers sailed through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran briefly declared it open on Friday, but the ceasefire was thrown into jeopardy when the US seized an Iranian cargo ship as it maintained its own naval blockade, this one on Iranian ports.
By Ulviyya Salmanli
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