Brussels – 18 January 2023 – The AJC Transatlantic Institute welcomes the European Parliament’s call for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to be listed as a terror organization. In an annual report on the “Implementation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy,” lawmakers backed with an overwhelming majority the amendment to designate the Iranian regime’s IRGC, with only nine votes opposed. 

“The European Parliament has sent a clear message to Tehran. Now it is up to the Foreign Ministers meeting on Monday to show that the EU supports the Iranian people as well as regional and European security by finally putting the IRGC on the terror list,” said Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the Brussels-based EU office of American Jewish Committee, the AJC Transatlantic Institute.

“The Islamic Republic founded the IRGC specifically to defend the regime, establish a global terror network, spread the Islamic revolution and oversee internal oppression,” Schwammenthal continued. “The Iranian regime and the IRGC have been involved in terror attacks around the world, including here in Europe, as with recent attacks and plots against Jewish institutions in Germany. And the IRGC are spearheading the supply of Kamikaze drones to Russia to terrorize Ukrainian civilians and destroy critical infrastructure. IRGC commandos have even been sent to occupied Ukraine to train Russian soldiers,” Schwammenthal added. “It is high time to designate the IRGC.”

In December, the AJC-backed Transatlantic Friends of Israel spearheaded a statement, signed by 220 lawmakers from Europe and North America, which called for Western democracies to list the IRGC as a terror organization.

The European Parliament report also states that any further negotiations on a nuclear deal with Tehran should not disregard “Iran’s other harmful policies, projects and military programmes.” Parliament further called for the establishment of an international investigative and accountability mechanism regarding human rights violations perpetrated by the Iranian regime.

Another European Parliament resolution “On the EU Response to the Protests and Executions in Iran,” scheduled for vote in the plenary tomorrow, is expected to reiterate the call for the IRGC to be added to the EU terror list. It will also call for sanctions against “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.