"Lifting the sanctions on Iran would be premature"

“We believe that lifting the sanctions would be premature,” she said in Berlin at a meeting of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), adding that the sanctions were imposed due to Iran’s repression of its own population, Reuters reports.

As she noted, there must first be a change— a substantial change in Iran—before sanctions can be lifted. The European Union imposed sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, the development of ballistic missiles, and human rights violations.

The measures include restrictions on trade, the financial sector, and energy, as well as the freezing of assets belonging to individuals and institutions linked to the Iranian authorities.