A new package of European sanctions against Iran and a move to classify the Revolutionary Guard as a “terrorist” organization.
A new package of European sanctions against Iran and a move to classify the Revolutionary Guard as a “terrorist” organization.
2026-01-29 05:41
Shafaq News – Brussels
The European Union on Thursday approved a new package of sanctions targeting individuals and entities in Iran for their involvement in suppressing protesters and supporting Russia, as EU members reached a political consensus to increase pressure on the Islamic Republic .
The approval of the new package comes in parallel with paving the way for an agreement to include the Iranian “Revolutionary Guard” on the EU’s list of terrorist organizations .
The bloc, which includes 27 countries, is expected to approve visa bans and asset freezes against 21 Iranian officials and government entities for repression, including Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni .
Several European countries, most notably France, Italy and Spain, have announced in recent days their support for including the “Revolutionary Guard” in the “European Union’s list of terrorist organizations “.
Human rights organizations have documented the killing of thousands, mostly protesters, by Iranian security forces in protests that erupted in late December over deteriorating living conditions and quickly turned into a movement raising anti-Iran slogans .
The EU’s foreign relations chief, Kaya Kallas, said ahead of a meeting of its foreign ministers in Brussels that she expected “we to agree on listing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization .”
She added, “When a party acts like a terrorist, it should expect to be treated like a terrorist,” noting that the designation “would put the Guard in the same category as groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS .”
The European Union has already imposed sanctions on the Revolutionary Guard as a whole and many of its leaders on several grounds, including the suppression of previous protests and Iran’s support for Russia in the Ukraine war, so it is unlikely that the new move will have any significant impact .
However, it remains highly symbolic politically, and is seen as a strongly worded message of condemnation from the European Union to the Iranian authorities over their violent crackdown on the protests .
shafaq.com
