Iran threatened Thursday to unleash “hazardous consequences” after the European Union formally designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, amid escalating tensions between Tehran and Western powers.
EU foreign ministers approved the designation at a meeting in Brussels, describing it as a response to Iran’s violent crackdown on anti-government protests.
“Repression cannot go unanswered,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X in announcing the decision. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise.”
The designation places the IRGC on the same terrorist list as al-Qaeda, Hamas and the islamic State group, Kallas said. ”If you act as a terrorist, you should also be treated as a terrorist.”
european Commission President Ursula von der Leyen shared the sentiment.”‘Terrorist’ is indeed how you call a regime that crushes its own people’s protests in blood,” she said.
In a statement carried by Ira“`html
Formed in 1979 in the aftermath of Iran’s Islamic revolution,the IRGC operates separately from the rest of the Iranian armed forces and has its own army,navy,air force,intelligence and special forces branches. Its role is to preserve the Islamic Republic, and it reports directly to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The revolutionary Guard was previously designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by the United States in 2019 during President Donald trump’s first term. The US at that time blamed Iran for the deaths of 608 American service members in Iraq between 2003 and 2011 at the hands of what it called the ”IRGC’s proxies.”
Against the backdrop of US threats to strike Iran for the second time since June, Tehran has announced a notable expansion of its military capabilities. Iran claimed it has added 1,000 “strategic drones” to its military stockpile,IRNA reported Thursday,though it remains unclear what types of drones were added.
The country also announced that IRGC naval forces will carry out live-fire exercises next week in the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which more than a fifth of the world’s oil and large share of liquefied natural gas flow.
Analysts say the EU’s terrorist designation of the IRGC is largely symbolic. “This measure will have very little impact,” Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told CNN. “Europe already ha
