PARIS — The European Union approved new sanctions against Iran on Monday, including freezing the assets of its largest bank, in a continuing effort to force Tehran to curtail its nuclear-development programs and fully cooperate with international inspectors.
The measures signal growing impatience among European leaders with what they see as Iranian foot-dragging in negotiations over halting uranium enrichment. Iran contends the program is purely peaceful, but many Western countries say it is secretly geared to developing nuclear weapons.
The EU sanctions, approved Monday at a meeting of the 27-nation bloc in Luxembourg, come on top of three sets of sanctions against Iran imposed by the U.N. Security Council in the past 18 months and a slew of sanctions levied unilaterally by the U.S. over two decades.
The new measures include an asset freeze on Bank Melli, Iran’s largest bank, and other businesses connected to the nation’s nuclear and weapons programs, and a travel ban on high-level Iranian officials involved in those fields, according to an EU official. The identities of the businesses and officials, who will be denied visas to EU countries, will be announced today.
Newspapers in Tehran reported last week that Iranian officials, concerned that the EU was preparing to freeze Iranian assets, recently transferred as much as $75 billion in assets out of Europe.
