The European Union is set to list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation after it killed 6,373 people during the brutal crackdown on protesters, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas, said.
The move, which will require unanimous support from the EU's 27 member states, is expected to align Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps with terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, Islamic State, Daesh, and Hamas.
"If you act as a terrorist, you should also be treated as a terrorist," she told reporters on Thursday.
Kallas, who was also the former prime minister of Estonia, said that it will send a "clear message that if you are suppressing people, it has a price and you will be sanctioned for this."
Iran is an ally of Russia and maintains an anti-Western ideology. It is allegedly a major supplier of weapons for Moscow's war in Kyiv, which Tehran denies. After the Revolutionary Guard is designated as a terror group, Europe will ramp up the pressure against Tehran.
For Iran, France had objected to listing the Guard as a terrorist organisation over fears it would endanger French citizens detained in Iran, as well as diplomatic missions, which provide some of the few communication channels between the Islamic Republic and Europe and its allies. However, the office of President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday signalled Paris backed the decision.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Thursday before the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels that France supports more sanctions in Iran and the listing "because there can be no impunity for the crimes committed."
"In Iran, the unbearable repression that has engulfed the peaceful revolt of the Iranian people cannot go unanswered," he said.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is the most powerful branch of Iran's military and a primary pillar of its political and economic structure. Established in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini to safeguard the Islamic Revolution, it operates independently of the regular army and answers solely to the Supreme Leader.
