By Tass

Copyright tass

BRUSSELS, September 29. /TASS/. The Council of the European Union has decided to follow the European troika of Great Britain, Germany and France in reimposing some sanctions on Iran, according to a press release on its website.

“Today, the Council agreed to reimpose a number of restrictive measures in relation to Iran’s nuclear proliferation activities, that had then been suspended with the entry into force of the Joint Plan of Action (JCPoA or Iran nuclear deal) in 2015,” the press release reads. According to it, the decision was taken after the E3 invoked the “snapback” mechanism.

The measures reintroduced on Monday include both those adopted by the UN Security Council since 2006 and also what Brussels called autonomous measures. These include a travel ban for individuals, asset freezes for sanctioned individuals and legal entities, trade restrictions, the freezing of assets of the Central Bank of Iran and of major Iranian lenders as well as measures to prevent access to European airports of cargo flights from Iran.

On Friday, the UN Security Council rejected a draft paper submitted by Russia and China to extend Resolution 2231, which underpins the Iranian nuclear deal, for six months. Barbara Woodward, the UK’s permanent representative to the UN, said sanctions against Iran will be reimposed later this week.

Earlier, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, criticized the E3’s sanctions on Tehran as null and void because London, Berlin and Paris had gravely violated the relevant procedure. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei called attempts by Britain, France, Germany and the United States to restore the UNSC resolutions against the Islamic Republic “unjustified and illegal.”