A group of European Parliament members on Wednesday began a renewed push for the European Union to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization, in a move that is gaining traction following elections that have seen a rightward shift across the continent.
The initiative comes three days after the European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas took office amid mounting concern in Europe over Iranian support of Russia in its war with Ukraine, and after years when her predecessor Josep Borrell worked to scuttle such a designation.
“Iran’s threat both to Israel and the entire region is obvious, and became out in the open with its repeated attacks this year,” Dutch MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen, who hosted a gathering of lawmakers at the European Parliament in Brussels, told JNS. “We need increased cooperation to counter this terrorism starting with listing the IRCG as a terrorist organization.”
Ruissen, who chairs the European Parliamentary Israel Allies Caucus, said it was clear that Borrell played a “crucial role” in blocking such a move in years past and that this summer’s elections and the appointment of the new top diplomat provided a “new opportunity” to go ahead with the move.
Washington designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization back in 2019. Canada did so earlier this year.
Kallas, who previously served as prime minister of Estonia, said last month during confirmation hearings that she would raise the issue with the E.U.’s foreign affairs ministers and promised a “new approach” on Iran.
Her office did not immediately return an email request for comment on Wednesday.
Veronika Kuchyňová Šmigolová, the Czech ambassador to Israel, told JNS this summer that the European Union was “moving ahead” with plans to list the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
“Iran has terrorized the Middle East and the rest of the world for decades,” said Dutch MEP Sebastiaan Stoteler, leader of the European Parliament faction of Geert Wilders’s Party for Freedom. “It is high time for the IRGC to be placed on the E.U. terrorist list.”
The European lawmakers attending the conference on Iran’s threat to the Western world came from Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Sweden.
“Israel stands at the forefront of the global battle against radical Islam, a force that threatens the freedom of every nation and individual,” Knesset member Amit Halevi (Likud) told his European colleagues. “The Iranian regime itself, with its murderous ideology, is the root cause of this terrorism, and this root must be eradicated to safeguard future generations.”
“The designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps on the European terror list is not only a strategic necessity but a moral obligation,” said Leo van Doesburg, Europe director of the Israel Allies Foundation. “Only through determined cooperation can we safeguard the fundamental freedoms and security of the free world.”
