The Hague, Dec 14, (dpa/GNA) – Dutch lawmakers and top government officials, have backed toughening EU sanctions against Iran, because of the Iranian regime’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.
A motion in Dutch parliament on Wednesday, calls for adding 227 Iranian members of parliament to the EU’s sanctions list and designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization on the EU’s terror list, the ANP news agency in the Netherlands reported.
Dutch lawmakers also demanded a tighter ban on exports of dual-use goods – products which can be used for both civilian and military purposes – to Iran. The export restriction is aimed at the Iranian defence industry, which supplies Russia with drones used to attack targets in Ukraine.
Reports in recent days indicated, that microchips made in The Netherlands had been discovered in Iranian military drones.
“Of course we are very much in favour of further increasing the pressure on Iran, including through sanctions,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said, according to ANP. “What is happening there is appalling.”
Nationwide protests in Iran broke out after the September 16 death of Jina Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd. Amini died in police custody, after being arrested by the country’s so-called morality police for allegedly breaking Islamic dress code.
Since her death, tens of thousands of Iranians have been demonstrating across the country against government repression, and its strict interpretation of Islamic rule.
GNA