Kaja Kallas: EU expected to add Iran's Revolutionary Guard to list of terrorist organizations

2026-01-29 09:16:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Kaja Kallas: EU expected to add Iran's Revolutionary Guard to list of

The European Union (EU) is very likely to include Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on its list of terrorist organizations, the bloc's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Thursday, on the eve of a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers.

"We are imposing new sanctions on Iran and I also expect to put the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the list of terrorist organizations," Kallas said.

"If you act like a terrorist, you should be treated like a terrorist," senior diplomat Kaja Kallas told reporters ahead of a ministerial meeting in Brussels.

She said this step puts the Revolutionary Guard on the same level as jihadist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

This action by the EU would send a strong message of condemnation to Iran, as thousands of people have reportedly been killed during the protests that rocked the country.

The 27-nation bloc is also expected to impose visa restrictions and freeze assets on 21 Iranian state entities and officials - including the country's interior minister - over the deadly crackdown on protests.

Iranian authorities acknowledge that thousands of people have been killed during the protests, giving a figure of over 3,000 victims, but say most were members of the security forces or bystanders killed by "troubling protesters."

Human rights groups dispute this, saying the death toll is much higher and likely in the tens of thousands. They say the protesters were killed by security forces, including the Revolutionary Guard, who fired directly at the protesters.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, is the ideological wing of Tehran's military and was created after the 1979 revolution to protect the clerical leadership.

The Guard controls or owns companies throughout the Iranian economy, including key strategic sectors.

"The assessment is that diplomatic channels will still remain open even after the Revolutionary Guards are included in the list," Kallas said.

The IRGC is expected to be blacklisted after France announced on Wednesday that it was supporting the move, and after Italy had also changed its position beforehand.

Paris was reluctant to support the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization due to fears of the impact on Europeans detained in Iran and a desire to keep diplomatic ties open.

"There can be no impunity for the crimes committed," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters upon arriving in Brussels.

The EU has already sanctioned several hundred Iranian officials and entities for the suppression of previous protest movements and for Tehran's support for Russia's war in Ukraine.

The IRGC as a whole and its senior commanders are already under EU sanctions, meaning that its inclusion on the terrorist organization list is expected to have little practical impact on the organization. /REL