EU Lists Iran’s Paramilitary Revolutionary Guard As Terrorist Organization

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union agreed Thursday to list Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization under Tehran. Bloody intervention in protests across the countryThe bloc’s top diplomat said it was a largely symbolic move that increased international pressure on the Islamic Republic.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said foreign ministers in the 27-nation bloc agreed unanimously on the appointment, which would put the regime “on the same footing” as Al Qaeda, Hamas and the Islamic State group.

Kallas said, “Those who operate through terrorism should be treated as terrorists.”

Meanwhile, Iran faces threats of military action from US President Donald Trump in response to the killings of peaceful demonstrators and possible mass shootings. American army took action USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided missile destroyers To the Middle East. It is not yet clear whether Trump will decide to use force.

Activists say the crackdown has killed at least 6,443 people. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working towards its own death,” Kallas said.

Iran has said it could launch a preemptive strike or target the Middle East broadly, including American military bases in the region and Israel.

Iran issued a warning to ships at sea on Thursday that it planned to conduct an exercise in the Strait of Hormuz next week that would include live fire, potentially disrupting traffic in a waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil passes.

Other countries, including the United States and Canada, have designated the Guard as a terrorist organization.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described this appointment as a “public relations stunt” and said that Europe would be affected if energy prices increased as a result of sanctions.

He wrote to X: “Many countries are currently trying to prevent the outbreak of all-out war in our region. None of them are European.”

France initially opposed listing the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization out of fear that it would endanger its diplomatic missions as well as French citizens detained in Iran, but the country reversed course. France supports more sanctions and lists against Iran because “the crimes committed will not go unpunished,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Thursday.

“The unbearable pressure in Iran that has engulfed the peaceful rebellion of the Iranian people cannot remain unanswered,” he said.

Edouard Gergondet, a lawyer who focuses on sanctions at the firm Mayer Brown, said the Revolutionary Guard will be informed of the list and given the opportunity to comment before the measure is officially adopted.

Kristina Kausch, deputy director of the German Marshall Fund, said the listing was a “symbolic act” for the EU, showing that “the path to dialogue has led nowhere and is now primarily about isolation and containment”.

“Defining the military arm of a state, which is the official pillar of the Iranian state, as a terrorist organization is one step short of severing diplomatic ties,” he said.

The EU on Thursday also imposed sanctions on 15 senior officials and six organizations in Iran, including those involved in monitoring online content, as Iran remains reeling from a three-week internet blackout imposed by authorities.

According to Barrot, the sanctions mean that the assets of affected officials and organizations will be frozen and they will be banned from traveling to Europe.

The Revolutionary Guard has major business interests across Iran, and sanctions could lead to the seizure of its assets in Europe.

Iran is currently struggling under the weight of multiple international sanctions from countries such as the US and UK.

Iran’s rial currency fell to a record low of 1.6 million dollars on Thursday. economic troubles It sparked protestsThis evolved into challenging the theocracy before oppression.

The guard appeared Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution This power was later incorporated into the constitution as a force aimed at protecting the government under the supervision of Shiite clerics. It operated in parallel with the country’s regular armed forces and grew in importance and power during the long and devastating war with Iraq in the 1980s. Although it was in danger of possible disintegration after the war, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei allowed it to flourish by giving it authority to expand into private enterprise.

The Guard’s Basij force likely played a key role in suppressing the demonstrations from January 8, when authorities cut off internet and international phone calls for the country of 85 million people. Videos coming from Iran via Starlink satellite dishes and other means appear to show individuals, possibly members of Iranian forces, shooting and beating protesters.

Iranian men who turn 18 are required to serve up to two years, and many find themselves drafted into the Guard despite its own policies.

In other developments, a memo sent to sailors via radio on Thursday warned that Iran planned to launch “naval strikes” in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and Monday. Two Pakistani security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists, also confirmed that the warning had been sent.

Iran did not immediately accept the drill. The hard-line Keyhan newspaper raised the specter of Tehran attempting to close the strait by force.

“Today, Iran and its allies are on a trigger that, at the first mistake of the enemy, will cut off the world’s energy artery in the Strait of Hormuz and bury the hollow prestige of billion-dollar Yankee warships in the depths of the Persian Gulf,” the newspaper said.

Such a move would likely invite US military intervention. American military officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Elsewhere, Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, whose Green Movement rose to challenge Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election, once again called for a constitutional referendum to replace the country’s government. A previous search could not be performed.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported that at least 6,443 people have died in violence in Iran in recent weeks, and it is feared that many more will die. The count included at least 6,058 protesters, 214 government forces, 117 children and 54 non-demonstrating civilians. It was stated that more than 47,208 people were arrested.

The group verifies each death and arrest with a network of activists on the ground, and this has been true during many previous rounds of unrest in Iran. A communications blackout imposed by Iranian authorities slowed the full extent of the crackdown to emerge, and The Associated Press was unable to independently assess the death toll.

Iranian government The report, which reduced the number of deaths to 3 thousand 117 as of January 21, stated that 2 thousand 427 were civilians and security forces and the rest were “terrorists”. In the past, the Iranian theocracy has undercounted or not reported deaths resulting from unrest.

This death toll exceeds the number of other protests and unrest in Iran in decades and is reminiscent of the chaos surrounding the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.