The European Parliament called on January 18 for the European Union to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization for the repression of protesters.
The Iranian regime continues the violent crackdown on protests, including the execution of detained protesters.
The resolution calls for the listing of IRGC, Basij, and Quds Force, in addition to sanctioning supreme leader Ali Khamenei, regime president Ebrahim Raisi, attorney general Montazeri, and IRGC-affiliated foundations.
This resolution also condemned executions in Iran and asked the European Union to ban all political and economic relations with the IRGC.
The impact of IRGC’s terrorist designation
If realized, this designation will have profound political, legal, and economic implications for the main force that maintains the mullahs in power.
In addition to the main political and economic bodies, the IRGC controls all the natural capital and mineral resources of the country. If the European Union adopts the appropriate measure, one of the main pillars of the regime will be sanctioned.
Designating IRGC as a terrorist organization means that most of the nuclear, regional, economic, and political activities inside and outside Iran, trade, and commerce, export, and import, etc. will be subject to sanctions. In other words, the west holds the mullahs’ regime accountable and isolates it.
The next prospect of designating the IRGC is to make harder sanctions and possibly referral of the Iranian regime’s nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council.
Undoubtedly, the recent nationwide uprising has made it clear to the whole world that the people want to overthrow this regime.
The implementation of the resolution by the EU will have important and comprehensive effects on the uprising.
How the regime has reacted
The Iranian regime officials had a panic reaction to the consequences of proscribing IRGC and showed how this listing would effectively downgrade the regime’s power in its totality:
In a call with Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, “The European Union will shoot itself in the foot by putting the IRGC on the terrorist list.”
Amir-Abdollahian called the recent resolution of the European Parliament “emotional,” “sharp”, “unprofessional” and “in conflict with political rationality and civility.”
“The listing of IRGC is against international laws and shows the intellectual, moral, and political weakness of the West,” said Interior Minister Ahmadi Vahidi, a former senior IRGC commander.
The members of Majlis (parliament), many of whom are IRGC members, warned that listing the IRGC by the European Union could cost a lot for this union.
“Europeans should know that sanctioning IRGC costs a lot for them, and they will suffer a lot of losses in this regard,” said MP Esmaeil Kowsari, a former commander of the IRGC Mohammad Rasulullah Corps. “We will respond to their actions; First through our embassies and then we will take actions against their interests.”
Ahmad Amir Farahani, a member of the Majlis Presidium, announced, “Certainly, the calamity that has befallen CENTCOM forces in the region and they move around in fear in the region will definitely involve the Europeans as well… In any case, if they do something, we will take countermeasures.”
Mahmoud Nabavian, another member of the Majlis, said, “If they sanction the IRGC, we will put Germany, England, France, and the European Union on the terror list, and the defenders of the resistance in the region will know how to face the terrorists. Take this threat seriously.”
Rasul Sanayee Rad, the political deputy of Khamenei’s ideological office, also said, “Placing the IRGC in the list of terrorist groups has consequences such as the inclusion of the British Navy in the list of terrorist groups and the opening of the armed forces’ hands, especially the IRGC, to deal with them as terrorists like ISIS.”
