Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday renewed calls to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist group and impose “painful” sanctions on Tehran after the regime launched hundreds of missiles and suicide drones at the Jewish state overnight.
“Strong condemnations of the brutal Iranian attack were heard from around the world tonight. The world stands with Israel and supports its right to defend itself. Iran must pay a price for its aggression,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat tweeted on Sunday afternoon.
“The initial price must be the immediate recognition of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps—which launched the extensive terrorist attack last night—as a terrorist organization,” he wrote.
In addition, “painful sanctions must be imposed on Iran, including but not limited to the field of missiles,” stated the spokesperson.
Haiat noted that “Iran attacked Israel, and it has attacked the Gulf states in the past, threatens Jordan, threatens the U.S., dispatches weapons for use in the war on Ukraine and endangers world peace,” adding that “this is precisely why Iran must never obtain nuclear weapons.
“Just like any other country, Israel has the right to defend itself in the face of Iran’s massive attack. Israel successfully defended itself against Iran’s aggression and will continue to do so in the future,” Haiat wrote.
The Islamic Republic fired more than 300 missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles from its territory towards Israel overnight Saturday, in what Tehran says was retaliation for the April 1 killing of several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers in Syria by Israel.
A 7-year-old Israeli Bedouin girl wounded in the attack underwent surgery Sunday for a severe head wound and remains in critical condition.
Hours before Iran began its direct assault on the Jewish state, IRGC terrorists hijacked the Israeli-linked MSC Aries container ship close to the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz slammed Tehran for seizing the Portuguese-registered vessel, which is operated by the Mediterranean Shipping Company and associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime.
Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer’s Zodiac Group.
Katz called on the European Union and the rest of the free world to immediately designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization and impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Last year, the European Parliament voted in favor of a measure calling for Brussels to designate the IRGC as a terrorist group, but the move was stymied by foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who asserted that such a move was not possible until an E.U. court had ruled on the issue.
The United States Department of State designated the IRGC as a whole as a foreign terrorist organization in 2019.
However, in September, Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on sanctions waivers paving the way for international banks to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian funds as part of a prisoner swap agreement with Tehran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the prospective U.S.-Iran deal at the time, saying, “Arrangements that do not dismantle Iran’s nuclear infrastructure do not stop its nuclear program and only provide it with funds that go to terrorist elements sponsored by Iran.”
