EU foreign ministers endorsed on Monday a French decision to
sanction Iranians accused of a failed terrorist plot in France, which would
include freezing the assets of Iran’s intelligence service.
Denmark has also been seeking EU-wide sanctions against Iran
for a similar plot by Iranians to assassinate Iranian opposition leaders on its
soil.
This marks a shift after months of division within the EU
over how to punish Iranians accused of destabilizing activities in Europe and
the Middle East.
In October, France said there was no doubt that Iran’s
intelligence ministry was behind the June plot to attack the demonstration by
Iranian exiles near Paris.
It froze assets belonging to Tehran’s intelligence services
and two Iranian nationals - a Vienna-based diplomat now under arrest in Belgium
for the plot and the deputy minister and director general of intelligence,
Saeid Hashemi Moghadam.
The EU had also been more aligned with Tehran against the US sanctions targeting Iran’s oil and financial sectors, but that seems to be changing now that the mullahs’ fingerprints are all over the knives in Europe’s back.
