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EU extends sanctions against Belarus, Iran officials European Union enacts imposes sanctions on 16 Belarus officials and 29 individuals from Iran for human rights abuses, as Dutch Foreign Minister claims Belarus is "Europe's last dictatorship"
The European Union imposed sanctions against 16 Belarus officials and 29 individuals from Iran on Monday, extending previous measures in response to crackdowns on opposition movements and other human rights abuses. At a meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose asset freezes and visa bans on the individuals. Targeting Belarus, EU governments hope to force the government of President Alexander Lukashenko to free political prisoners and give more freedom to the opposition. The bloc's 27 member states have already imposed sanctions on nearly 200 officials and Monday's move targets mainly judges and state lawyers involved in the detention of leading human rights activist Ales Belyatsky. "Belarus is the last dictatorship in Europe. We think president Lukashenko should understand that he has to release all political prisoners," Dutch foreign minister Uri Rosenthal told reporters before meeting his counterparts in Luxembourg. "We think that when it (the message) is not learned the soft way, it should be learned the hard way." However, EU envoys have failed to agree on a ban on European firms from doing business with more companies from Belarus, diplomats said. Several EU capitals, including Italy, Cyprus and Latvia among others, they said, argued there was not enough evidence of connections to repression to add more companies to EU sanctions lists. In terms of Iran, the new measures extend the current list that targets individuals associated with human rights violations to 61. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/23773.aspx
