EU designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terror group

EU foreign ministers agreed Thursday to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a “terrorist” group, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said.

Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister who now serves as the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said the measure would put the IRGC “on the same footing” as terror groups such as al-Qaeda, Hamas and the so-called Islamic State.

Meeting in Brussels ahead of the terror designation decision, the ministers also voted to add 15 individuals and six “entities” to an asset freeze and visa ban blacklist.

Among those on the list of 15 individuals sanctioned on Thursday were Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, Iran’s prosecutor general Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, who is head of Iran’s joint command headquarters, and Iman Afshari, a presiding judge.

The anticipated move by the EU to blacklist the Revolutionary Guard comes after France and Italy said they would support the measure, after previously resisting it.

Tehran criticized the move, calling it a “major strategic mistake.”

Read more: DW