Iran
A handout picture provided by the Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency (ICANA) on January 22, 2023, shows Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) chief Hossein Salami (L) and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, attending a parliament meeting in the capital Tehran. Photo: ICANA/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran’s foreign minister said Sunday that the country’s parliament will hand a terror blacklist to European armies if a planned EU Parliament resolution to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization this week goes through.
Members of the European parliament on Wednesday voted on a non-binding resolution to add the IRGC on its terror blacklist “in light of its terrorist activity, the repression of protestors and its supplying of drones to Russia.”
“In a countermeasure, the [Iranian] parliament is trying to put elements of the army of European countries on the terror list,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted after a closed meeting with IRGC chief Hossein Salami.
“The European Parliament shot itself in the foot,” he added.
Iran's Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian, who attended a closed session of parliament today along with IRGC chief Salami, says lawmakers are planning to designate as terrorists the armed forces of EU states in response to the European Parliament's resolution this week. https://t.co/UnICQDKgMR
— Kian Sharifi (@KianSharifi) January 22, 2023
The IRGC’s Basij paramilitary force has been heavily involved in the suppression of protests since mid-September after being deployed to crush the demonstrations stemming from the death of young Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini after being arrested by the morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic republic’s strict dress code.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran called the vote “against international law and the UN charter,” a day following the 27-nation bloc’s vote, labeling the move “desperate.”
Amir-Abdollahian labeled the European Union proposal “harsh and unprofessional” on Thursday and called on the legislature to “think about the negative consequences of this emotional behavior.”
Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf vowed that the legislature will issue a “quick, firm, and reciprocal response” to any move targeting the IRGC.
“I should make it clear that such measures, which follow long-running and extensive sanctions by the West, especially the US, will not have more dire legal consequences against the Iranian nation,” Ghalibaf said.
The US has had the IRGC as well as its foreign Quds Force on its terror blacklist since 2019.
Hundreds of people have been killed in Iran after over four months of nationwide antigovernment protests following the death of Amini, with the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA)’s latest tally on Saturday reading at least 525 protestors, including 72 children, have been killed and over 19,500 arrested since the protests began.
Iran has accused foreign nations, mainly Israel, the US, and EU countries, of being behind the unrest that has triggered a violent crackdown by security forces.
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