Brussels, Apr 18: European Union leaders agreed late on Wednesday on new sanctions targeting Iran for the direct attack on Israel.

The EU has decided "to put in place sanctions against Iran", European Council President Charles Michel told reporters in the early hours of Thursday morning after the first day of a two-day summit.

"The idea is to target the companies that are needed for the drones, for the missiles," he said. Further details are to be finalized, he added.

"The European Union will take further restrictive measures against Iran, notably in relation to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and missiles," the EU leaders' statement said.

The EU summit on Wednesday and Thursday was originally meant to focus on the bloc's economy and its competitiveness. But rising tensions in the Middle East pushed the economic discussion into the second day's agenda.

EU leaders appealed for calm as Israel weighed a response to the drone and missile attack from Iran on Saturday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Israel not to retaliate against Iran with a "massive attack of its own" on his arrival.

Scholz called on Israel to now use the successful defence against Iran's missile and drone attack "to strengthen its own position in the entire region." On this basis, "a corresponding military response would certainly not be appropriate," he said.

Iran said the drone and missile attacks were retaliation for the killing of high-ranking Iranian officers in a missile strike on Iran's embassy in Syria at the start of the month.

Sanctions may be imposed through a regime set up after Iran began supporting the Russian war on Ukraine by supplying Moscow with drones.

These sanctions banned the export of components used for the construction and production of unmanned aerial vehicles to Iran, and may be expanded to make it harder for Iran to produce missiles.

Calls from Israel to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite unit of the Iranian armed forces, as a terrorist organization are more difficult to meet.

The IRGC would first have to be prosecuted by a national authority for terrorist activities under EU law to prompt this sanction. Scholz said however a recent court ruling in the EU, concerning the activities of the IRGC, is being examined by EU officials.

(IANS/DPA)

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