Iran warns EU over ‘terrorist’ designation vote for IRGC

Response from Tehran on Thursday’s transfer has ranged from defiance to warnings of penalties for Europe.

Tehran, Iran – The European Parliament’s approval of a decision calling on the bloc to contemplate a “terrorist” designation for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has acquired robust condemnation from senior Iranian officers and commanders.

On Thursday, the European Parliament overwhelmingly accepted a decision that calls on the European Union to recognise Iran’s elite pressure and its subsidiaries, just like the paramilitary Basij and the Quds Drive, as “terrorist” organisations.

It additionally condemned the Iranian authorities’s response to the protests which have been going down within the nation since September, the executions linked to the protests, and drone gross sales to Russia, whereas additionally recommending sanctions towards Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Ebrahim Raisi and all IRGC-linked foundations.

The EU will not be obliged to implement the decision. Whereas senior EU politicians have voiced their help for the decision, it’s not anticipated to be amongst new sanctions on dozens of Iranian people and entities anticipated to be accepted by the bloc on Monday.

Response from Tehran on Thursday’s transfer has ranged from defiance to warnings of penalties for Europe.

IRGC commander-in-chief Hossein Salami met parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf – a former IRGC commander – early on Saturday to coordinate a possible response.

The IRGC, the international ministry and lawmakers are additionally anticipated to carry a closed-door assembly on Sunday.

“If it wasn’t for the efforts of the IRGC, particularly the Quds Drive and martyr Soleimani, the terrorism volcano created by the Individuals would have engulfed the Europeans and the safety that prevails in Europe at this time would have been destroyed,” Salami stated in reference to Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a United States drone strike in Iraq in 2020.

Ghalibaf and different lawmakers have additionally threatened European armed forces with a “terrorist” designation.

The US, which has supported the European Parliament’s proposal, has blacklisted the IRGC.

The Iranian international ministry has responded to US and EU sanctions with sanctions of its personal, many associated to Soleimani’s assassination. The ministry termed the IRGC “the world’s largest counterterrorism establishment” whereas claiming a possible designation of the pressure – which is an official entity of the Iranian institution – would represent a violation of the United Nations Constitution.

‘Capturing itself’

Throughout a telephone name on Thursday, Iran’s Overseas Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian instructed the EU’s international coverage chief Josep Borrell that the transfer “was like Europe capturing itself within the foot”.

A number of of the statements launched by Iranian entities and officers say designating the IRGC indicators “desperation” by European politicians after they failed to attain their objectives throughout “riots” in Iran.

That is according to Iranian authorities’ repeated stance that the West has been behind the protests aiming to destabilise Iran, a declare that has been rejected.

In the meantime, talks to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear take care of world powers that the US unilaterally deserted in 2018 additionally stay in limbo.

European politicians proceed to view the nuclear accord because the solely viable remaining possibility to include Iran’s nuclear programme, and the European Parliament additionally earlier this week voted towards a movement to declare the talks lifeless.