European Parliamentarians call for Iran sanctions over downing airliner
TFI chairman Lukas Mandl, an Austrian member of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said the downing of the Ukrainian airliner “crossed a redline.”
By LAHAV HARKOVWorkers adjust a European flag outside the EU Parliament ahead of the EU elections in Brussels(photo credit: YVES HERMAN / REUTERS)
Europe should expand sanctions on Iran after it shot down a Ukraine International Airlines flight, killing 176 people, leaders of Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) in the European Parliament said on Monday.The members of the European Parliament plan to bring their argument before the legislature in a debate titled “Situation in Iran and Iraq after recent escalations,” set to take place Tuesday evening.TFI chairman Lukas Mandl, an Austrian member of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said the downing of the Ukrainian airliner “crossed a redline.”“After three days of denial and tampering with the evidence for all the world to see, Iran finally admitted that it accidentally shot down the passenger jet,” he said. “In any case, the Iranian regime must be held accountable. Now is the time to expand sanctions on Iran, just as the council had announced after Russia shot down MH17.”Mandl, a member of the center-right European People’s Party, said anyone who wants to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons must insist that the nuclear deal be implemented.Liberal EU lawmaker Petras Auštrevičius of Lithuania, who is TFI’s vice chairman, recounted that “after the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, EU foreign ministers immediately announced that they would expand sanctions against Russia.”“The same must now happen with Iran,” he said. “But this time we must actually follow through.”Sanctions against Iran “for its terrorist activities that threaten also Europe and our key regional ally, Israel,” are only the first step, Auštrevičius said. “With 176 lives, including 16 Europeans, cut short due to Tehran’s actions, there can’t be business as usual.”He called on Europe to “take a firm stand for the cause of freedom,” adding that it should have sanctioned Iran for killing 1,500 protesters late last year.“EU governments must stand at the side of the brave protesters yearning for liberty and warn the regime that it must end the brutal crackdown or face crippling sanctions,” Auštrevičius said.TFI is an interparliamentary group of lawmakers dedicated to the postwar order of security and cooperation. It views support for Israel as a core part of its mandate. The group is backed by the American Jewish Committee’s Brussels-based Transatlantic Institute.
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