EU places further sanctions on Iran

European leaders meeting in Brussels have decided to impose new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, going further than the UN's latest punitive measures aimed at putting pressure on Tehran. The new EU sanctions would include a unique ban on new investment, technical assistance and transfers of technologies to Iran's key gas and oil industry. Thursday's move came a day after the US Treasury expanded its Iranian blacklist to include another of the country's state-controlled banks, a shipping line and more members of the revolutionary guard corp. Russia, which last week approved the fourth set of sanctions to be imposed on Iran by the UN Security Council, has sharply criticised the EU and Washington for imposing the additional sanctions.