The European Council, the European Union’s chief decision-making body, on Thursday formalized its decision to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
Following the Jan. 29 political agreement reached during a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers, “the council formally decided today to add the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran to the E.U. terrorist list,” the body said in a press release on Thursday.
Effective immediately, the elite branch of the Islamic regime’s armed forces “will also be subject to restrictive measures under the E.U. counter-terrorism sanctions regime,” the statement continued.
The listing “includes the freezing of its funds and other financial assets or economic resources in E.U. member states, and the prohibition for E.U. operators to make funds and economic resources available to the group,” Brussels added.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar applauded the “historic decision” by the European Union last month to designate the IRGC as a terror group.
“For years, and with even greater intensity in recent weeks, Israel has worked to achieve this outcome,” Sa’ar stated shortly after Euronews reported that Brussels had achieved the required unanimity.
“The No. 1 actor in spreading terror and undermining regional stability has now been called by its name,” Jerusalem’s senior diplomat wrote, noting that listing the corps as a terrorist group “will thwart and criminalize their activities in Europe.”
The move will “deal a significant economic blow to an organization that controls a vast share of the Iranian regime’s economy, and it sends an important message to the brave men and women of Iran who are fighting for their freedom,” the foreign minister said.
E.U. foreign-policy chief Kaja Kallas, who also serves as vice president of the European Commission, told journalists ahead of the deliberations that “if you act as a terrorist, you should also be treated as a terrorist.”
The European designation came in the wake of Tehran’s crackdown on nationwide protests that erupted on Dec. 28. The Islamic Republic has acknowledged that thousands of demonstrators have died, but rights groups and reports estimate the figure to be in the tens of thousands.
The IRGC is an ideological wing of the Islamic Republic that functions as the primary branch of the Iranian Armed Forces.
It fired live ammunition at protesters after the Islamic regime escalated its efforts to curb the demonstrations, following an internet shutdown throughout Iran that went into effect in January.
