TEHRAN (Iran News) –President Ebrahim Raisi has condemned an EU move to designate the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, noting that the measure comes due to the “desperation” of Europeans.
Speaking in a cabinet session on Thursday, Raeisi briefly referred to a recent amendment to a resolution by the European Parliament which calls on the EU and its member states to include the IRGC on their terror list.
“This move is out of desperation and it comes after their failed attempts on the streets to deal a blow to Iranian people,” he said, referring to the foreign-backed riots that started in Iran in mid-September 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini.
Europe thought that it could “stop the Iranian nation” with such measures, he said
The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps is an “official force” and part of Iran’s Armed Forces, Raisi stressed, adding, “The measure is in contravention of the international law and the UN Charter.”
The remarks come as the European Parliament adopted another resolution on Thursday, calling for more sanctions against Iranian individuals and entities, including Raisi, as well as putting the IRGC on the EU terrorist list over alleged human rights violations during recent riots.
This is while Iran’s intelligence bodies have found footprints of American and other Western spy agencies in recent violent riots inside Iran which claimed the lives of dozens of people and security forces.
Meanwhile the European Union (EU) is reportedly planning to impose sanctions on dozens of Iranian individuals amid its efforts to blacklist Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a “terrorist organization,” despite Tehran’s stern warning of the consequences of such a hostile measure.
Citing two European diplomats, Reuters said on Thursday the European bloc was to add 37 names to its sanctions list on Monday.
“We will adopt the fourth package of sanctions against Iran on Monday,” the officials said.
The 27-nation bloc has been slapping sanctions against Iran over, what it calls, the country’s confrontation against the foreign-backed violence and riots that erupted across the Islamic Republic in September after the tragic death in police custody of a young Iranian woman, named Mahsa Amini.
The unfortunate incident was immediately picked up by Western-based media outlets and officials, who — without providing any convincing evidence — started claiming that the woman had been “murdered” by police forces.
Iran immediately released the CCTV footage showing the young woman fainting at a police station and being subsequently transferred to a hospital. In the meantime, Iranian authorities conducted an investigation into the incident, concluding that Amini’s death had been caused by an illness, rather than alleged bodily harm.
One of the European diplomats, who were speaking to Reuters, meanwhile, said, “We believe we should already start working on the fifth one (sanction package) to list IRGC as a terrorist organization.”
