Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Monday welcomed the announcement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that his government had designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization following the European Union’s designation last week.
“This is an important diplomatic and moral decision: Against terror. Against repression. For freedom,” Sa’ar wrote on X.
Zelenskyy’s announcement on the matter came in a video message, in which he said: “The European Union’s decision to designate one of the main organizations of the regime in Iran, the so-called Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as a terrorist organization has been practically agreed upon. European procedures are currently underway. We in Ukraine have already made such a decision and have already designated this organization as a terrorist organization, for us this issue is closed. All terrorists in the world deserve the same treatment and condemnation — no one should win.”
Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine supports “peoples who value freedom and are truly ready to fight for it,” and noted that the “whole world sees what is happening in Iran, the number of killings, and how the Iranian regime has contributed to the spread of war and violence in the region and the world.”
He also said that “Ukraine will not forget any of the thousands of ‘Shaheeds’ that strike at our cities and villages, at our people.” This was a reference to the Iranian name for one of its drones, which it is selling to Russia and which Russia uses to target Ukraine.
In announcing the E.U. designation, its top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, cited the crackdown on protesters in Iran since Dec. 28. Thousands are estimated to have been killed, with some estimates ranging as high as 30,000.
“Repression cannot go unanswered,” Kallas said last week, adding the move would put the IRGC—a major military, economic and political force in Iran—on the same level as Al Qaeda and Islamic State.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the E.U. decision was a “stunt” and a “major strategic mistake.”
