Iran criticized on Saturday the European Union’s decision to impose more sanctions on top officials and the Revolutionary Guards for providing drones to Russia and its allies in the Middle East.
The head of the Guards’ external operations division, the Quds Force, Esmail Qaani, and Iran’s defense minister, Mohammed Reza Ashtiani, are among the targets of the EU’s sanctions, which were announced on Friday.
The head of a state aircraft company, the Kavan Electronics Behrad company, and an armed forces command center are also the targets of the sanctions.
The foreign ministry of the Islamic republic called the action “regrettable” and claimed that it was the result of “repeated, absurd, and baseless excuses and accusations.”
“The European Union… once again resorted to the obsolete and ineffective tool of sanctions against the powerful Iran,” ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement.
The sanctions forbid any EU citizen or company from engaging in business with the listed individuals and organisations.
Iran is accused by the United States and its allies, including Israel, of supplying drone fleets to its allies in the Middle East, particularly the Huthi rebels in Yemen and the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah.
Iran disputes accusations made by Kiev and its Western allies that it supplied Russia with drones to use in the conflict in Ukraine.
