France is pushing for the European Union to "target senior officials and hold them responsible for their actions" over Iran's repression of protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told parliament Tuesday, according to the AFP news agency.
Proposed sanctions include "freezing their assets and their right to travel", Colonna said, criticizing Tehran officials who she said "repress (protests) on the one hand and send many of their own children to live in the West on the other".
Her comments come a day after Germany's Der Spiegel reported that Paris was working with Germany, Denmark, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic on new sanctions against Tehran.
Amini, 22, was pronounced dead on September 16, days after the morality police detained her for allegedly breaching rules requiring women to wear hijab headscarves and modest clothes.
Anger over her death has sparked the biggest wave of protests to rock Iran in almost three years and a state crackdown that has seen scores of protesters killed and more than 1,000 arrested.
US President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States will place "further costs" on Iran in response to the violent crackdown against "peaceful protesters" in the country.
"This week, the United States will be imposing further costs on perpetrators of violence against peaceful protesters. We will continue holding Iranian officials accountable and supporting the rights of Iranians to protest freely," Biden said in a statement.
The President added that he is "gravely concerned about reports of the intensifying violent crackdown on peaceful protesters in Iran, including students and women, who are demanding their equal rights and basic human dignity."
Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed on Monday that protests inside the country were the work of Israel and the United States.
Describing Amini’s death a “sad accident,” he alleged that the protests were not organized by outraged Iranians but by agents of Israel and the US.
"This rioting was planned," he said. "These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees."
Khamenei added that protesters deserved to be imprisoned, claiming that participants in demonstrations were out to “sabotage” the country and should face harsh punishment.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Yom Kippur in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)