Europe under pressure to sanction the Revolutionary Guards

Four months to the day after the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, the tragic start of an unprecedented and violently repressed popular uprising in Iran, the diaspora and the supporters of the Iranian people are meeting this Monday, January 16 in front of Parliament Strasbourg European. According to the organizers, demonstrators from around fifty European cities are expected for this mobilization scheduled from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A debate on January 17 in the European hemicycle

The call to demonstrate was launched by a Swedish MP, Alireza Akhondi (Center Party). This 43-year-old elected official, born in Isfahan, promotes the adoption of a European resolution so that the Guardians of the Revolution, all-powerful and sprawling ideological army of the Islamic Republic, are placed on the list of terrorist organizations. The timing is not insignificant since MEPs will meet the day after the demonstration in the hemicycle to discuss the European Union’s response to the demonstrations and executions in Iran, with the head of EU foreign policy , Josep Borrell, ahead of a vote scheduled two days later. “Let us come together, united, and with a common spirit. To label the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, “Corps of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution”, Editor’s note), as a terrorist organization, pleads Alireza Akhondi. Punishing criminals is not enough! We need a resolution! »

The adoption of a text along these lines would above all serve to put pressure on the European Council, which alone can vote on sanctions. The subject will be on the agenda of the next meeting of European foreign ministers, scheduled for January 23.

About 500 dead in four months

Until now, only members of the organization had been subject to individual sanctions by the European authorities. Classifying the organization as a terrorist would mean that their assets could be seized and belonging to and supporting it would be considered a crime.

The Revolutionary Guards, who control large swathes of the economy, the armed forces, and oversee Iran’s nuclear and ballistic program, are accused of fomenting the rampant repression of the protest movement – violence, arrests, imprisonments, death sentences , executions – which left, according to NGO estimates, around 500 dead. Founded after 1979 to protect the interests of the Islamic Republic, the organization saw its power further strengthened with the coming to power of the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raïssi in the summer of 2021.

‘Politically important’

The idea of ​​”blacklisting” the Iranian Guardians is not new and it is regularly raised, especially since Washington took the plunge in 2019, under Donald Trump, as part of its “maximum pressure” against Iran and its nuclear program. In October, the head of German diplomacy Annalena Baerbock had already advanced this track, immediately qualified as “illegal” by Tehran. On January 9, the German minister reiterated that imposing a new set of sanctions will not, in her view, be enough. “It’s politically important” to do so, she added on Twitter.

Until now reluctant, France is now less closed to the idea, in light of the recent executions of demonstrators and the sending of Iranian drones to the Russian army in Ukraine. But Paris also knows that it cannot afford to break with the Iranian regime at a time when it is holding seven French nationals. Asked about France’s position on a possible designation of the Guardians as a terrorist entity, the spokesperson for diplomacy Anne-Claire Legendre replied that “given the continuation of this repression, France is working with its European partners to new sanction measures, without excluding any a priori”. The UK is also reportedly preparing to formally classify the Iranian organization as a terrorist. Even if many details still remain to be settled, specifies the BBC.

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