Europe’s designation of Iran’s main army branch as “terrorists” on Thursday (29 January) is not an endorsement of US military strikes, the EU’s top diplomat has said.
“This will put them [the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC] on the same level as [Middle East militant groups] Daesh, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Al-Qaeda,” EU foreign relations chief Kaja Kallas told press in Brussels.
“If we list them as a terrorist organisation, then many member states have prescribed any relations with terrorist organisations, so this puts more pressure [on the Iranian authorities],” she said.
“When it comes to [US] attacks, I think the region does not need a new war,” Kallas added, after being asked on the timing of the IRGC move.
The EU designated the corps on grounds it massacred anti-regime protesters some three weeks ago.
The EU also imposed visa-bans and asset-freezes on Iran’s interior minister, 14 security chiefs, and six entities on Thursday for the same reason.
Incoming US warships
The IRGC decision came as US warships approached Iran, amid renewed threats by US president Donald Trump to launch air strikes, citing Tehran’s alleged nuclear-weapons programme.
But the US has already listed the IRGC as terrorists and the new EU move would be unlikely to sway Trump, said HA Hellyer from the Royal United Services Institute, a think-tank in London.
“I don’t see it changing the calculus that much. It’s not as though Trump needs a casus belli to strike — he will do so if he chooses,” Hellyer said.
France and Italy had initially objected to the IRGC terrorist designation, amid fears it would end diplomatic relations with Tehran and put EU nationals in prison there in harm’s way.
But Kallas said they had changed their minds this week after the scale of the Iran killings slowly came to light.
“There was an internet ban [in Iran] and the situation wasn’t clear, but when things became clear it was decided there had to be a very strong response,” she told press, after meeting with EU foreign ministers earlier on Thursday.
“Iran must release all those unjustly detained, including European Union citizens,” she said.
Varying death-toll estimates
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has estimated Iran killed 23,000 people, while the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group has said it was more than 25,000.
A further 18,000 people were jailed and risk lethal violence, Denmark has estimated, with mass arrests still ongoing, the Reuters news agency reported.
The IRGC has some 640,000 military personnel and has threatened to strike US military bases in the region with drones and missiles if Trump bombed Iran.
It has also announced live-fire drills in the Strait of Hormuz for 1 February, to show how it could shut off a key route for US and EU-bound oil supplies from the Middle East.
Two US sources told Reuters that Trump’s incoming military strikes were meant to inspire new protests in order to cause “regime change”.
But Kallas’ warning of a “new war” in the region comes amid fears that Iran could also hit US allies, such as Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, if attacked, while regime collapse in Iran could cause civil war, with overspill to neighbouring countries.
“Any forceful actions can only create chaos in the region,” the Kremlin also said on Thursday, while preparing to evacuate its personnel from the Bushehr nuclear energy plant in Iran, which it built for its ally.
Meanwhile, the EU’s IRGC-terrorism decision was warmly welcomed by top EU officials, senior MEPs, Israel, and Jewish advocacy groups.
“This listing is not merely symbolic. It carries very concrete legal consequences: assets are frozen, and any financial or material support becomes a criminal offence,” said German green MEP Hannah Neumann, who chairs an Iran delegation.
The Brussles-based European Jewish Congress said the IRGC was “linked to plots and hostile activities on European soil, demonstrating that its reach and danger are not limited to the Middle East”.
