BRUSSELS, Jan 29 (Reuters) – European Union overseas ministers agreed on Thursday to incorporate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on their checklist of terrorist organizations, placing the highly effective guard group in the identical class because the Islamic State and al-Qaeda and marking a symbolic shift in Europe’s strategy to Iran’s management.
“Repression can not go unanswered,” European Union overseas coverage chief Kaja Callas mentioned on social media platform X. “Regimes that kill 1000’s of their very own residents are working in the direction of their very own demise.”
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The Revolutionary Guards, established after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution to guard the Shiite clerical institution, management massive swaths of the nation’s financial system and navy and have nice affect inside the nation. The Guard was additionally answerable for Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear applications.
Some EU member states have beforehand known as for the Revolutionary Guards to be added to the EU’s terrorist checklist, however others have taken a extra cautious stance, fearing it might impede communication with the Iranian authorities and endanger European nationals of their nations.
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But the motion gained momentum earlier this month after a brutal crackdown on nationwide protests that left 1000’s lifeless.
“It is essential to ship a sign that the bloodshed we have now seen, the bestial violence perpetrated towards the protesters, is unacceptable,” Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel mentioned Thursday morning.
France and Italy, which had beforehand been reluctant to checklist the Revolutionary Guards, additionally expressed assist this week.
EU hopes to proceed dialogue with Iran
Despite considerations in some capitals that the choice to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group may lead to an entire breakdown in relations with Iran, Karas instructed reporters Thursday morning that “diplomatic channels will nonetheless be open in our estimation.”
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani mentioned the settlement “doesn’t imply that we should always not proceed the dialogue.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arakchi criticized the EU minister’s resolution.
Iran’s overseas minister wrote in X that Europe is “making one other huge strategic mistake,” including that “the EU’s present stance is deeply damaging to its pursuits.”
EU imposes sanctions on Iran
The Council of the European Union additionally introduced that the EU on Thursday adopted sanctions concentrating on 15 people and 6 entities “answerable for critical human rights violations in Iran.”
Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, Prosecutor General Mohammad Mobahedi Azad, quite a few Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders and a few regulation enforcement officers had been sanctioned, the assertion mentioned.
The EU additionally sanctioned 4 people and 6 entities linked to Iran’s drone and missile applications and “determined to additional prolong the ban on exports, gross sales, transfers and provides from the EU to Iran of elements and expertise used within the growth and manufacturing of UAVs and missiles,” the council mentioned.