The European Parliament on Wednesday asked the EU to include the Revolutionary Guards, Tehran’s ideological army, on the blacklist of “terrorist organizations”.
MEPs, meeting in plenary session, invite the Union and its Member States to ” include the Islamic Revolutionary Guards on the Union’s terrorism list “, according to the text of an amendment, very widely adopted, added to an annual report on the common foreign policy.
Iran has been rocked by a wave of protests against power since the death on September 16 of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died three days after being arrested in Tehran by the morality police for improperly wearing the Islamic veil. Several people have been sentenced to death and executed in connection with the protests.
On Monday, around 12,000 people from all over Europe demonstrated all the way to the European Parliament in Strasbourg (eastern France) to demand the inclusion of the Revolutionary Guards on this blacklist, as the United States has already done. They had received the support of the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, who came to meet them.
An ideological army
” I guarantee that all options for the EU to react to events in Iran remain on the table “, affirmed during a debate in the hemicycle the European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders. This Thursday, MEPs are expected to reaffirm this demand in the vote on a non-legislative report devoted solely to the European response to demonstrations and executions in Iran.
The text that will be put to the vote is more complete than that adopted on Wednesday. In particular, it explicitly stresses that the Quds forces and the Bassij militia, which are affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, must also be blacklisted. Taking into account the fact that the Guardians are present in the Iranian economy through numerous companies that they directly or indirectly control, the text also calls for the prohibition of ” any economic or financial activity with these.
Created on April 22, 1979, just over two months after the victory of the revolution against the power of the Shah and when the new authorities had limited confidence in the army inherited from the old regime, the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution is an ideological army. Unlike the national army, the Pasdaran’s primary role is not to ensure the protection of the country’s territorial integrity; their mission is safeguarding the Revolution and its achievements “, according to the Constitution.
(With AFP)