Iranian regime’s terror nature exposed as Europe hesitates to join the fight |
On Friday, March 20, 2026, Iran’s senior military spokesperson, General Abolfazl Shekarchi, warned that “parks, recreational areas, and tourist destinations worldwide will not be safe for Tehran’s enemies, including senior Israeli and American officials.”
This threat comes as little surprise. Since its establishment in 1979, the Iranian regime has been widely regarded as a major sponsor of terrorism, relying on the global reach of IRGC networks and on proxy groups such as Hezbollah and the Houthis.
After all, what did Iran do as the US-Israeli military campaign against the regime began? It responded with terrorism by attacking, with missiles and drones, civilian targets in Israel and even in neighboring countries not directly involved in the war. The regime’s rockets hit hotels, malls, civilian structures, airports in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and even Azerbaijan. In Israel, the Khomeinist regime targeted kindergartens, schools, and civilian residences.
The attacks were accompanied by obvious lies as the regime claimed that it would not target neighboring countries nor civilian targets, while its state propaganda said that the attacks were causing massive destruction among the Israeli and US military apparatus, in a desperate attempt to domestically hold on to the narrative while the regime and the IRGC leadership were being decimated by Israeli and US raids.
On a domestic level, the Basiji and the IRGC attempted once again to intimidate and repress the population. The regime placed checkpoints throughout Iranian cities, therefore resorting once again to terror against the Iranian people.
Iran’s overall strategy, regardless of whether domestically or internationally aimed, is based on threat, terror, and destabilization. As stated on Monday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
“If you want proof that Iran endangers the entire world, the last 48 hours have given it: targeting civilian populations, endangering Jerusalem’s holy sites (including the Muslim’s), testing ICBMs with 4,000km range, blackmailing global energy routes.”
As the agonizing Iranian regime is now in survival mode, it is willing to do anything to outlive the deadly offensive launched by Israel and the United States, including acts of terror against civilian targets. The statement made by Abolfazl Shekarchi can be interpreted in such a way since it is very unlikely that Israeli and US officials will be enjoying time in “parks, recreational areas, and tourist destinations” during wartime.
Iran initially tried to create fear and instability among its Gulf neighbors, hoping they would push the United States and Israel to halt the attack. Since the regime’s plan did not succeed, Tehran tried to further expand the chaos by constantly attacking civilian targets in the area and beyond, reaching the point of targeting a civilian airport in Azerbaijan. However, the expansion of Iranian attacks beyond the Gulf did not help the regime either and, on the contrary, it is only generating further hostility towards Tehran.
Moreover, attempts to shut down the Strait of Hormuz are only creating the conditions for a stronger U.S. offensive. On Saturday, President Trump gave the Iranian regime 48 hours to clear the strait or face the destruction of its energy infrastructure.
Iran responded by threatening retaliation across the Middle East, warning that it would target and irreversibly damage critical infrastructure and energy facilities throughout the region.
However, even if Iran were able to inflict some damage, the consequences for what remains of the regime would likely be devastating, both economically and militarily. Beyond the immediate losses, such actions could prompt greater international involvement. European countries, such as the UK, France, Germany, and Italy, might be compelled to join operations in the Gulf, albeit in a limited, largely defensive policing role, to help keep the Strait open. This would come as the U.S. military leads a broader campaign to dismantle fortifications along the Strait of Hormuz.
As stated by the US Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessent: “The Iranian regime’s command and control is in chaos…Most of what we see now are lone wolf actions. Yesterday’s medium-range ballistic missile launches (toward Diego Garcia) are desperate actions.”
At that point, the Iranian regime could easily play one of its last available tactics: terror attacks on European soil to target what is seen by Tehran and the Islamists as the “soft belly” of the West, in the hope of frightening the population and putting pressure on governments to abandon the game, a bit like al-Qaeda did in Spain with the Madrid Atocha train station attack in March 2004 which led to the consequent withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq.
Of course, in the current case, the situation, the context and the actors at play are different. However, the reluctance shown by Europeans in joining the operations and their constant reference to mediation and de-escalation, which can be easily interpreted as a pretext, does not help in projecting a strong image of Europe.
The terror threat targeting Europe could come from different actors such as:
IRGC, MOIS, and Hezbollah sleeping cells and networks present on European soil. Last week, the Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said: “it is estimated that there are hundreds of Iranian sleeper cells around the world, people who appear normal but who can be activated at any time to carry out terrorist acts, even sacrificing themselves.”
Local criminal gangs hired by the Iranian regime’s networks, as already happened in Sweden, to carry out surveillance, intimidation, and attacks targeting Iranian dissidents, journalists, and Israeli or Jewish objectives.
Individuals or groups of autonomous perpetrators, not necessarily hired by the regime, coming from compliant and sympathetic communities; for instance, Sunni Muslims who support Hamas and the Iranian regime’s fight against the West. It is worth keeping in mind that within the vast Islamic presence in Europe (predominantly Sunni), feelings of hostility towards the West and anti-Semitism are widespread.
Far-left groups or individuals prone to violence who could decide to act on their own initiative to target “imperialist” interests.
This is quite a new challenge for the European security services, which have so far mostly focused on al-Qaeda and ISIS-related terrorism, as the IRGC wasn’t even classified as a terrorist actor until very recently. Europe has been for decades a major commercial partner of the Iranian regime and it is now forced to face Tehran’s true face of terror.