EU designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as terrorist group amid crackdown

The European Union has formally listed Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation, citing Tehran’s violent suppression of nationwide protests that activists say killed over 6,000 people. The EU also sanctioned Iranian officials and organisations linked to censorship.

Brussels: The European Union has listed Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation over Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests, the bloc’s top diplomat said in a post on X on Thursday.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said that foreign ministers unanimously agreed on the designation. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,” she said.

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“This will put them on the same footing with al-Qaida, Hamas, Daesh,” Kallas said earlier Thursday, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

“If you act as a terrorist, you should also be treated as a terrorist.” The 27-nation bloc on Thursday also sanctioned 15 Iranian officials, including top commanders of the Revolutionary Guard, over the violent crackdown on protesters. Activists say the crackdown has seen at least 6,373 people killed.

The measures, while largely symbolic, add to international pressures on the Islamic Republic, which faces a threat of military action from US President Donald Trump in response to the killing of peaceful demonstrators and over possible mass executions. The American military has moved the USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers into the Mideast. It remains unclear whether Trump will decide to use force.

For its part, Iran has said it could launch a pre-emptive strike or broadly target the Mideast, including American military bases in the region and Israel. Iran issued a warning to ships at sea Thursday that it planned to run a drill next week that would include live firing in the Strait of Hormuz, potentially disrupting traffic through a waterway that sees 20 per cent of all the world’s oil pass through it.

Iran had no immediate comment, but it has criticised Europe in recent days as it considered the move. Other countries, including the US and Canada, have designated the Guard as a terrorist organisation.

Terrorist group label a ‘symbolic act’

France had objected to listing the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation over fears it would endanger French citizens detained in Iran, as well as diplomatic missions. However, it later signalled it backed the move.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Thursday before the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels that France supports more sanctions in Iran and the listing “because there can be no impunity for the crimes committed.” “In Iran, the unbearable repression that has engulfed the peaceful revolt of the Iranian people cannot go unanswered,” he said.

Kristina Kausch, a deputy director at the German Marshall Fund, said the listing is “a symbolic act” showing that for the EU “the dialogue path hasn’t led anywhere and now it’s about isolation and containment as a priority.” “The designation of a state military arm, of an official pillar of the Iranian state as a terrorist organisation is one step short of cutting diplomatic ties,” she said. “But they haven’t cut diplomatic ties and they won’t.”

The EU on Thursday also sanctioned six organisations in Iran, including those involved in monitoring online content, as the country remains gripped by a three-week internet blackout by authorities.

The sanctions mean that affected officials and organisations will have their assets frozen and their travel to Europe banned, French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said earlier Thursday.

The Revolutionary Guard holds vast business interest across Iran, and sanctions could see any of its assets in Europe seized.

Iran already struggles under the weight of multiple international sanctions from countries including the US and Britain.

Iran’s rial currency fell to a record low of 1.6 million to USD 1 on Thursday. Economic woes had sparked the protests that broadened into challenging the theocracy before the crackdown.