Several EU countries push to designate IRGC as terror organisation

The economic powerhouse of Europe, Germany, along with a number of other European countries are pushing the EU to classify the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.

The German Press Agency (DPA) reported on May 27 that diplomats told the wire service that “Multiple EU countries including Germany are pushing to classify the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization on the basis of a German court ruling.”

According to the DPA, diplomats emphasized on Monday that the Guard's terror listing would be primarily a symbolic step because there are already EU sanctions against them.

However, a blanket sanction on the IRGC—similar to the EU terror designation of Hamas—would be a powerful move that would adversely affect IRGC-linked structures in the EU, involved in activities such as spying on Iranian dissidents and carrying out terror plots.

The German legal ruling earlier this year is from the High Court in the city of Düsseldorf, stating that a 2022 attack on a synagogue in the city of Bochum was traced to the “Iranian state authorities.”

The German media report did not name the other countries supportive of a ban on the IRGC. Borrell, who is widely viewed as sympathetic to the Islamic Republic, has been recalcitrant toward punitive measures targeting the IRGC.

A full terrorism designation imposed on the IRGC would enable European law enforcement personnel greater police and investigatory powers to prosecute Iranian regime officials and organizations.