EU foreign ministers are expected to agree on Thursday to include Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on the bloc’s “list of terrorist organisations” following the deadly crackdown on mass protests, the EU’s foreign policy chief said.
“If they act like terrorists, they must also be treated as such,” senior diplomat Kaja Kallas told reporters ahead of the ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
He stated that this measure places the Revolutionary Guard at the same level as jihadist groups such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
This symbolic EU initiative will send a strong message of condemnation to Iran, after thousands of people were reported dead during protests that have shaken the country.
The 27-nation bloc will also approve the visa ban and asset freeze of 21 Iranian state entities and officials, among whom is expected to be the country’s Interior Minister, due to the brutal repression.
Iranian authorities acknowledge that thousands of people died during the protests, with a death toll of more than 3,000, but claim that the majority were members of the security forces or bystanders killed by “rioters.”
Human rights groups deny this, stating that the number of victims is much higher, possibly in the tens of thousands, and noting that the protesters were killed by security forces, including the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), who fired directly at them.
The IRGC is the ideological arm of Tehran’s army and was created after the 1979 revolution to protect the clerical leadership.The Guard controls or owns companies throughout the Iranian economy, including key strategic sectors.
“The estimate is that diplomatic channels will remain open even after the inclusion of the Revolutionary Guard on the list,” Kallas said.
The long-awaited green light to blacklist the IRGC came after France announced on Wednesday that it backed the move, following a similar change by Italy.
Paris was seen as reluctant to label the IRGC a terrorist group due to fear of the impact this would have on Europeans detained in the country and a desire to keep diplomatic relations open.
“There can be no impunity for the crimes committed,” declared the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, to journalists upon his arrival in Brussels.
“This decision is also a call from France to the Iranian authorities to release the thousands of prisoners imprisoned by the regime and put an end to the executions that perpetuate the most violent repression in Iran’s modern history,” he said.
Barrot urged Tehran to end the Internet blockade and “give back to the Iranian people the ability to choose their own future.”
The EU has already sanctioned several hundred Iranian officials and entities for the repression of previous protest movements and for Tehran’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The IRGC as a whole and its senior leadership are already subject to EU sanctions, meaning the decision to add them to the blacklist of terrorist organizations is expected to have little practical impact on the organization.
(With information from AFP)
