The European Union Should Add the IRGC to its Terrorism List

The EU’s foreign policy chief was dismissive in January when asked about adding Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to the European Union’s terrorist list. Josep Borrell was interviewed by the EU Foreign Affairs Council on January 1. warned, “It is something that cannot be decided without a court decision first. You cannot say I consider you a terrorist because I don’t like you.”

But, there’s more! Growing calls To add the IRGC to the EU’s terrorist list are not based on dislike. They are based on four decades’ worth of evidence that the Guard Corps is implicated in terrorism. Some of the evidence has actually been the subject matter of court cases outside and within the European Union. However, a European Union designation does not necessarily mean that a court ruling is required. Some members of the bloc might be dawdling by citing There are legal requirements to be included on a terrorist list — which the Guard Corps in any event satisfies — as excuses to avoid an uncomfortable policy decision.

Important Precedents

Before any individual or entity is added in the EU terrorist list, the EU must agree on the common position Requires “precise information indicating that a decision has been taken by a judicial or equivalent competent authority.” This is the result. “may concern initiation of investigations or prosecution for a terrorist act or an attempt to carry out or facilitate such an act” Or “conviction for any of those actions.” List proposals come from EU countries “based on a competent authority of a member state or a third country.” This means that a sanctioning of an individual or entity for being a terrorist doesn’t necessarily require an investigation, prosecution or judicial process within the European Union. This can be done by any third country, such as the United States. It is also possible to get a final court verdict. It may suffice for a government to open an investigation or bring a prosecution.

It is Do you have evidence? German authorities believe that the Guard Corps was responsible for the shooting at the Essen synagogue, Bochum’s firebombing and attempted arson at the Dortmund synagogue. The Tagesschau news website Quote An investigator saying “we’re talking about state terrorism here.” In France, Bernard Henri-Lévy was reportedly Recently, the IRGC Quds Force was targeted. They allegedly offered $150,000 for an Iranian drug dealer. He in turn recruited other conspirators to kill him in Paris. These incidents occurred in France and Germany, and were clearly investigated. This could be sufficient to satisfy the EU threshold for terrorist designation.

European officials can also look at how the EU imposed restrictions on Qassem Shahlai, Quds force officer Abdulreza Shahlai and Gholam Shakuri under terrorism authority in 2011. The U.S. government was officially declared terrorist on October 11, 2011. Indicted Shakuri and implicated Soleimani and Shahlai in an alleged plot to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington by using explosives at a well known Georgetown restaurant. The Council of the European Union was established on October 22, 2011. Decent All these men should be added to the EU terrorist list Based The U.S. investigation and indictment. 

IRGC Sanctions: Requirements Satisfied Already

Authorities of EU member states appear to have conducted active investigations into IRGC activity. It is not unusual for the Council of the European Union, which relies on the United States to add individuals to its terror list, to do so. EU officials looking for a recent case involving IRGC will find one from last years, when the U.S. government was involved. Charged An alleged a href=” by a member from the IRGChttps://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/member-irans-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-irgc-charged-plot-murder-former-national”>murder-for-hire scheme John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to National Security.

In a recently unsealed matter, there may be IRGC involvement. Indictment Three members of an Eastern European criminal organisation were charged in an Iran-linked plot to assassinate Masih Alinejad. Although it is unclear from the indictment itself which Iranian security organ was responsible for the alleged plot — the Ministry of Intelligence and Security or the Guard Corps — EU officials should seek information from their American counterparts as to whether there is an IRGC nexus.

Therefore, it is possible to argue that the legal requirements to add the IRGC on the EU terrorism list have been met. It was actually something that should have occurred years ago.

Iran’s Regime Profits on European Soil

Some people argue that an EU terrorism designation for the IRGC would not be necessary, as the Guard Corps is already being designated. sanctioned under arms of mass destruction-related authorities. These sanctions are however scheduled To be Elevated The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action for this year’s October. Terrorism-related sanctions being imposed on the Guard Corps would therefore hollow out the promise of relief to guardsmen under a potentially revived nuclear accord, even though JCPOA seems dead in its 2015 form. The Wall Street Journal Separately floated An alternative option to sanctioning the Guard Corps is to do so under human rights-related authority. While the impact would be similar — asset freezes — the European Union should be sanctioning the guardsmen for multiple conduct-related offenses. This would help to harmonize transatlantic designations. 

Furthermore, there is an important symbolic aspect to the IRGC’s addition to the terrorism list. It would be joining an international hall of shame that includes the Islamic State. Many Iranian freedom fighters made this comparison with the Islamic State. Chants During protests of “Basij, Sepah (You are our ISIS).” A terrorist designation would indicate that the major democracies around the world support the Iranian people and not their oppressors.

The problem goes on. A recent example of this is an Iranian businessman. Submitted Le Monde, “Former Revolutionary Guards who have been out of uniform for years and travel to Europe, as well as their children, are the ones who keep the Iranian economy going. It is precisely this category that will be affected by this measure.” Potential criminal penalties could also apply
Attached to the designation. Terrorist designations would have more than symbolic value. It would allow the European Union to send a signal to Tehran to say that things cannot continue as they are. Iran cannot use European soil for illicit wealth growth and structural corruption. 

Failure to apply minimum pressure

Andere may. Compete The Guard Corps may not need to be sanctioned in its entirety as a terrorist organisation. Only its Quds Force should. This artificial distinction is not necessary. In fact it was another division, the IRGC’s Aerospace Force, which directly attacked the Mercer Street merchant vessel with a lethal drone — the Shahed 136This is the exact same model Iran transferred to Russia to use against Ukraine. Two European nationals were killed in that attack in July 2021. Indeed, the IRGC’s Aerospace Force has been playing an increasingly direct and lethal role in extraterritorial operations. The IRGC also has other components, such as its Ground Force and Basij. Support Quds Force missions. This interoperability suggests that the IRGC should be designated as a terrorist organization across all branches.

The Iranian system has reacted furiously to a call by the European Parliament for the Council of the European Union to add the IRGC to the EU’s terrorist list. This shows how afraid the Iranian establishment is of being named. The IRGC was also designated by Washington as a foreign terrorist group in 2019. It culminated in an Iranian Sanction U.S. Central Command is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union. Expect a similar response. Despite all the doomsday and hysterical predictions, there was no war. In fact, it would not even be unprecedented for the European Union to add an Iranian state entity to its terrorism list — it did so in 2019 when it Branded the Directorate for Internal Security of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry as a terrorist entity following a bomb plot outside Paris targeting an Iranian dissident rally.

The European Union’s long-standing engagement-heavy and pressure-light attitude towards Iran has not worked. It has not moderated Iranian decisions-making and Tehran has wasted and resisted the efforts of the bloc to revive JCPOA. This all counsels in favor of the European Union taking a more hardened approach to combatting the Islamic Republic’s abuses. 

Jason M. Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), is Jason M. Brodsky. His research specialties include Iranian leadership dynamics, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Iran’s proxy and partner network.