Legislators & World Leaders Call on the EU to Follow US Lead in Designating Iran’s IRGC as Terror Organization
Edited by: Fern Sidman
In the last several weeks, the European Union, in response to growing oppression of protestors by the Iranian regime, has designated 20 Iranians plus one state media organization for human rights violations, according to a report on the United States Institute for Peace web site. The list included Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, a Friday prayer imam, the deputy interior minister, and a member of the Assembly of Experts. It also sanctioned eight other organizations and people, including an IRGC and air force commander, for manufacturing and exporting drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
On December 13, Britain sanctioned three people and one drone component manufacturer; two of the individuals and the organization were also on the E.U. list, the USIP reported. The sanctions essentially translate into the assets and property of people or entities in any of the 28 countries being frozen and visas being banned. The E.U. measures also forbid European citizens and companies from providing funds to the listed people and entities.
In response to the E.U. sanctions, the Islamic Republic designated 10 Europeans and five media, engineering, and energy organizations on December 12 for “deliberate actions in support of terrorism” and “spreading hatred” that had caused “riots” in Iran, as was reported by the USIP web site. Eight were German military officers and politicians. The foreign ministry said that two of the sanctioned companies had produced chemical weapons for Iraq during its war with the Islamic Republic in the 1980s.
Iran also retaliated against British sanctions on December 12, the day before Britain officially released its designations list. Iran designated 13 British defense and government officials, two military bases, and two global advocacy organizations, also for “support of terrorism” and causing “riots” in Iran, the USIP reported. The sanctions barred the cited Europeans from entering the Islamic Republic and froze any assets and property of the designated people or entities in Iran. The following are E.U., British, and Iranian statements and designation lists.
The European Union designated the following entity and individuals for the ongoing crackdown:
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)
Peyman Jebelli, director of IRIB
Mohsen Bormahani, deputy director of IRIB
Ali Rezvani, reporter at IRIB
Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour, reporter at IRIB and head of IRIB’s foreign Persian-language group
Seyyed Ahmad Khatami, Imam and member of the Assembly of Experts
Seyyed Majid Mirahmadi, deputy interior minister
Sayyed Abdolrahim Mousavi, commander of the army
Morteza Jokar, deputy head of the Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) in Sistan and Baluchistan province
Majid Souri, deputy commander of the IRGC in Lorestan province
Mohsen Karimi, commander of the IRGC in Markazi province
Alireza Heydarnia, commander of the IRGC in Alborz province
Amanollah Garshasbi, deputy commander of the IRGC in Sistan and Baluchistan province
Bahman Reyhani, deputy commander of the IRGC in Kermanshah province
Habib Shahsavari, commander of the IRGC Shohada unit in West Azerbaijan province
Mohammad Abdollahpour, commander of the IRGC-Qods Force in Gilan province
Siavash Moslemi, commander of the IRGC Karbala unit in Mazandaran province
Ahmad Zulqadr, commander of the IRGC Seyyed al Shohada unit in Tehran province
Morteza Kashkouli, commander of the IRGC Hazrat Abulfazl unit in Lorestan province
Isa Bayat, commander of the 364th IRGC brigade in Mahabad, West Azerbaijan province
Mohammad Taghi, commander of the northwest Iran regional IRGC headquarters
The European Union also designated the following individuals and entities for Iran’s supply of drones to Russia:
Yousef Aboutalebi, managing director of Oje Parvas Mado Nafar Company
Ali Reza Balali, counselor to Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the IRGC Aerospace Force
Abdollah Mehrabi, head of the IRGC Aerospace Force Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization
Hamid Vahedi, commander of the air force
Design and Manufacturing of Aircraft Engines
IRGC Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization
Oje Parvas Mado Nafar Company
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called the package “very tough,” and an EU foreign minister’s statement criticized a “brutal and disproportionate use of force” against protests in Iran, as was reported by iranintl.com. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the sanctions would target “in particular those who are responsible for the executions, the violence against innocent people…especially the Revolutionary Guards.”
Iran recently executed a second person over the unrest, which has seen the deaths of 488 protestors and 62 members of the police or security forces, according to Norway-based HRANA.
At the end of October, VOA reported that Germany and the European Union are considering adding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to the list of terrorist organizations, German Foreign Minister Annalina Baerbock said.
In an interview in October with a German news agency, Baerbock added, “We are also examining how we can list the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization,” VOA reported.
Baerbock’s comments come a day after Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, warned protesters that security forces might intensify their crackdown on expressions of dissent.
On December 8th, it was reported that 220 politicians from Europe, Canada, and the United States on released a statement calling on the European Union and Canada to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its proxies as terrorist organizations.
“We, lawmakers from opposite sides of the Atlantic and with diverse political views, are united in our grave concern about the growing threat to regional and global peace posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terror,” the statement reads. “Since its inception in 1979, the IRGC has created and funded a multitude of terror groups in the region, including Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The regime has used these terror proxies to spread death, terror, and instability in the Middle East and beyond. The transatlantic community should therefore impose sanctions and designate the IRGC, and all of Iran’s terror proxies, as the terrorists they are.”
Signatories included 27 US Senators and Congressional Representatives from both the Democratic and Republican parties, including statement co-initiators Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL) and Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), as well as Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Reps. Kathy Manning (D-NC) and Dan Crenshaw (R-TX).
The statement calls for the EU and Canada to also designate the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah in their entirety as terrorist organizations, something that currently only the United States does, according to the Algemeiner report. A few weeks ago, Canada imposed sanctions on the IRGC for human rights violations and for supporting Russia, while the EU has only imposed sanctions on the IRGC’s Aerospace Force.
Spearheaded by the American Jewish Committee’s Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) project, the interparliamentary statement was released amid the regime’s deadly crackdown on protesters, its escalating regional and global aggression, and a spike in acts of state terrorism, including the recent kidnapping and assassination attempts on U.S. soil against British-American author Salman Rushdie and Iranian-American journalist and women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad.
The European Parliament leadership of TFI, including TFI President Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou, Vice President David Lega, and Chair Lukas Mandl, sent the statement to the European Commission, the European External Action Service, the European Council, and the governments of all 27 EU member states, the AJC reported.
Among the signatories are former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov (Bulgaria), former Foreign Affairs Ministers Anna Fotyga (Poland), Radek Sikorski (Poland), Daniel Mitov (Bulgaria) and Ekaterina Zaharieva (Bulgaria), as well as former Defence Ministers Matej Tonin (Slovenia) and Alexandr Vondra (Czech Republic). Other signatories include Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Chair of the Bundestag’s Defence Committee; Dame Diana Johnson, Chair, UK House of Commons’ Home Affairs Committee, Hristo Gadzhev, Chair of the Bulgarian National Assembly’s Defense Committee; and Žygimantas Pavilionis, Chair of the Lithuanian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs committee.
Also on the list of signatories on the statement were Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC), Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Taskforce for Combating Anti-Semitism; the Rt Hon Stephen Crabb, Chair of the UK House of Commons’ Conservative Friends of Israel; Anthony Housefather MP, Chair of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group; Marty Morantz MP, Vice Chair of the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group; James Bezan MP, Shadow Minister for National Defense and Sari Essayah, President of the Christian Democrats (Finland).
Other signatories included Gatis Eglītis, President of the Conservatives (Latvia); Marek Vyborny, Chair of the KDU-ČSL Parliamentary Group (Czech Republic); Ilhan Kyuchyuk, Co-President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (Bulgaria); Frédérique Ries (Belgium) and Katalin Cseh (Hungary), both Vice-Chairs of the Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament.
Additionally, the legislators expressed grave concern over Tehran‘s nuclear violations and material support for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the AJC web site. “Iran’s growing alliance with Russia and its supply of advanced drones for Moscow’s brutal war against Ukraine further underline the danger the Islamic Republic poses not just to Middle Eastern, but also to Western security,” reads the statement.
Unlike regular armies designed to defend a country’s borders, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini founded the IRGC shortly after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 to defend the regime and spread its ideology. As such, they have become the mullahs’ shock troops overseeing Tehran’s global terror network and internal oppression.
The AJC also reported that highlighting the need for strong transatlantic cooperation, the lawmakers point to inconsistencies between U.S., Canadian, UK, and EU designations of terrorist organizations.
While all have designated Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an IRGC proxy, and the EU sanctioned last month the IRGC Aerospace Force for its supplies of drones to Russia, only the U.S. has designated the entire IRGC as a terror organization. The U.S., Canadian and UK terror listings of Hezbollah cover the entirety of the organization, while the EU considers only the so-called “military wing” as a terror group, the AJC stated on their web site. The interparliamentary statement underscores the need for the U.S., Canada, and European partners to act decisively and consistently to curb the Iranian regime’s aggression by designating the IRGC and its proxies as terrorists.
This point rings true as the year 2023 is fast approaching. International security experts have stated repeatedly that Iran’s IRGC is a cauldron of terrorist activity and its gravitas can no longer be taken lightly.
Iran is on the brink of enriching uranium to a 90% military grade level which means that they are now prepared to build their nuclear arsenal as they target neighboring Israel in the cross hairs. This means that the IRGC will be even more empowered in terms of disseminating their terror tactics.
The EU no longer has the luxury of standing on the side lines as it pertains to designating the entire IRGC on their list of terror organizations. The EU must take the lead from the United States, and other Western countries who truly understand that the only way of quashing the insidious methodology of terrorism in Iran is to strike at its heart. And only through a bold designation of the IRGC on their terror list, can the terror engine in Iran come to a grinding halt.
