EU lists Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terror group over protest crackdown |
European Union foreign ministers on Thursday agreed to include the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the bloc’s list of terrorist organizations, putting the powerful Iranian military force in a category similar to that of Islamic State and al Qaeda and marking a symbolic shift in Europe’s approach to Iran’s leadership.
“Repression cannot go unanswered,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar praised the decision as “historic,” and an Israeli official argued that the designation would make it easier to prosecute members of the IRGC.
Set up after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shi’ite clerical ruling system, the IRGC has great sway in the country, controlling swaths of the economy and armed forces. The guards were also put in charge of Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs.
While some EU member states have previously pushed for the IRGC to be added to the EU’s terrorist list, others have been more cautious, fearing that it could hinder communication with Iran’s government and endanger European citizens in the country.
But a brutal crackdown on a nationwide anti-regime protest movement earlier this month, killing thousands, increased momentum for the move.
“It’s important that we send this signal that the bloodshed that we’ve seen, the bestiality of the violence that’s been used against protesters, cannot be tolerated,” Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said on Thursday morning.
France and Italy, which were previously reluctant to list the IRGC as a terror group, lent their backing this week. And Israel hailed the achievement of a goal it had long sought.
“For years Israel has worked toward this outcome, and in recent weeks with even greater intensity,” Sa’ar wrote on X on Thursday, calling the IRGC “the number one force behind the spread of terror and the destabilization of the region,” asserting that the move will thwart such........