Iran - EU: Listing the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity would be "enormous"

There is no chance in the calendar of events.

Four months to the day after the death of Mahsa Amini, the tragic start of a violently repressed popular uprising in Iran, MEPs submitted, on Monday January 16, a request before Parliament to classify the body of the Revolutionary Guards (GCRI), armed wing of the Iranian regime, among the terrorist organizations. 

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© AFP

At the same time, members of the diaspora and supporters of the Iranian people gathered in front of the Parliament, in Strasbourg, and in around fifty cities in Europe to increase pressure on the EU.

Logical follow-up to this timetable: on Tuesday, parliamentarians must debate this question in assembly with the head of EU foreign policy, Josep Borrell, before putting the resolution to the vote on January 19. 

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The initiative called for by the 43-year-old Swedish MP, Alireza Akhondi (Centre Party) was followed by 117 parliamentarians, who were also convinced of the need to strike harder.

Among the signatories of the request, some French deputies like Nathalie Loiseau (Renew Europe) or Raphaël Glucksmann (Socialists & Democrats).

"Let's come together, united and with a common spirit, and brand[ us] the IRGC as a terrorist organization, vehemently coward Alireza Akhondi, determined to convince the entire hemicycle. Punishing the criminals is not enough! We have need a resolution!"  

Today the regime in Tehran strikes, rapes and kills those who simply want to live free.

The Revolutionary Guards are the armed wing of repression.

Along with 117 MEPs, I demand that they be designated as a terrorist group and new sanctions 🇪🇺 pic.twitter.com/Ti8UUUG505

— Nathalie Loiseau (@NathalieLoiseau) January 12, 2023

Existing sanctions

However, the European Union has so far not been stingy in terms of condemnation and sanctions against Tehran.

On November 9, the European Parliament severed its relations with the Islamic Parliamentary Assembly (consultation body made up of intellectuals) because of the violation of human rights in the country.

Then the EU issued a series of sanctions targeting around 150 Iranian personalities and entities such as the interior minister, provincial heads, law enforcement agencies, public broadcasting officials and, already, the Guardians Corps. of the Islamic revolution.

Sanctions result in asset freezes or bans on entering European territory. 

On December 12, the European Union gave a new turn of the screw and condemned "the unacceptable repression of demonstrations in Iran and the situation in terms of human rights".

The list of sanctions was then lengthened: the EU banned exports to Iran of equipment likely to be used for repressive purposes.

Iran was also expelled from the UN Commission on the Status of Women in December 2022. 

Pressure on the European Council 

“At its level, the European Parliament has used all possible legal remedies, explains Majid Golpour, researcher at the Free University of Brussels and consultant for the European Parliament. But the adoption of such a text, whose favorable outcome there is no doubt, will above all allow Parliament to put pressure on the European Council, the only one empowered to vote on sanctions. We will therefore have to see what the next meeting of European Foreign Ministers, scheduled for January 23, will do when the question of Revolutionary Guards will be the order of the day."  

Some European capitals do not hide their intention to classify the IRGC as a terrorist organization.

On January 9, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Twitter that “listing the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization is politically significant and makes sense.”

His French counterpart indicated the following day that he did not rule out the idea either, as France had so far refrained from characterizing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in such terms.

"France is working with its European partners on new sanction measures, without excluding any", said the spokesperson for the Quai d'Orsay during a press briefing.

The United Kingdom should also, for its part,

take a decision in this direction in the coming weeks, following the lead of the United States.

The Pasdarans ("Revolutionary Guards", in Persian) were added to the US list of terrorist organizations in 2019 at the request of Donald Trump.  

Towards a strengthening of the alliance with Moscow? 

To date, the European list of terrorist entities includes around 20 organizations, including Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State group and the armed wing of Lebanese Hezbollah, supported by Iran.

If the European Council decides to place the Revolutionary Guards on its blacklist, "the consequences will be enormous, warns Majid Golpour. There will be a paradigm shift from all points of view. Europe will then switch to a whole new series of rapid changes on commercial, banking, financial affairs, on technology transfers and will launch all-out confiscations. Any contact with this organization will be considered illegal from the point of view of European law. So in the short term, the  

Such sanctions call on Western capitals to exercise the greatest caution, continues the specialist.

"We are at a pivotal moment when we must also ensure that Iran, which has become too isolated, does not turn too much to the side of Russia, engaged in the war against Ukraine."

Added to this is the thorny issue of the stalled negotiations in an attempt to revive the 2015 agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, of which France is a signatory and still a stakeholder.  

Hope in the street

"This polycrisis, at the same time institutional, political, economic, financial and even religious, in particular on the interpretations of Islam, will not be resolved only with international sanctions. To bring down a regime, as was done in 1979, it certainly takes pressure from outside but also internal pressure. The courage, wisdom and determination of the demonstrators, who are ready to sacrifice their lives, are going in the right direction."  

Iranian justice confirmed the death sentence of 18 people in connection with the demonstrations, according to AFP.

Among them, four men have already been hanged between December 2022 and the beginning of January.

About fifty risk the same fate. 

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