European Union foreign ministers are set to hit Iran with the toughest sanctions they have ever imposed on it when they meet in Brussels on Monday, diplomatic sources said, DPA reported.
A month ago, the United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions on Iran to try and force the Islamic republic to stop enriching uranium. But the EU and United States decided that those sanctions were not enough.
EU foreign ministers at their regular monthly meeting are therefore set to agree the "toughest ever" sanctions on Iran, targeting the energy and financial sectors and cracking down on people and companies linked to the government, diplomats said.
The UN sanctions had called on UN members to ban the sale of goods used in nuclear production and missile development to Iran, allowing them to stop and search Iran-bound ships if they have "reasonable grounds" to suspect that they are breaking the embargo.
The proposed EU sanctions are understood to go several steps further, calling for a ban on "dual-use" goods which can be used for both military and civilian purposes.
The EU is also expected to ban the sale of equipment and transfers of technology to Iran's oil and gas companies. EU diplomats said that the ban will make it much harder for Iran to modernize and upgrade its energy sector, something which it is keen to do, since EU and US companies are at the forefront in developing energy technology.
And the EU is also set to crack down on Iran's banking sector, imposing tighter surveillance and banning new links with EU banks, and on its transport sector, potentially banning cargo flights from Iran into Europe.
Finally, the bloc is also expected to extend the list of Iranian citizens and companies whose assets should be frozen.
The aim of the exercise is to pressurize the government in Tehran into ceasing uranium enrichment, in line with UN demands. EU diplomats stressed that the goal of the sanctions regime was to encourage Iran to resume talks on the nuclear issue.