The General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces has blamed European politicians for the “dangerous consequences” that, in their opinion, the designation of the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization by the European Union will have.
The military called the European decision “illogical, irresponsible and detestable” and made under “pressure from the delusional and foolish president of the United States and the terrorist and child-killing Zionist regime.”
“The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran warns that the dangerous consequences of this hostile and provocative decision will fall directly on European political leaders,” the military organization said in a statement in which it also considers that it is a measure that violates “the fundamental principles of respect for the national sovereignty of the countries,” according to the statement.
“Repression cannot go unanswered. EU Foreign Ministers have just taken a decisive step by designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization,” said the head of community diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, in a message on networks.
The decision comes after the repression of massive protests against the Iranian regime
Following the informal agreement reached, the European Union must formally approve the inclusion of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on the list of terrorist organizations, a decision that requires the unanimity of its members.
The decision comes after the repression of massive protests against the Iranian regime this month, in which 3,117 people died according to the official Iranian version, a figure that opposition human rights organizations such as HRANA, based in the US, place at 6,373 deaths, with thousands of reports of homicides not yet confirmed and more than 40,000 arrests.
Abbas Araqchi, Iranian Foreign Minister, has already described the decision as “another strategic mistake” by the EU, which he accused of hypocrisy for its position in Gaza and of harming its own interests.
“After seeking the ‘snapback’ (the reactivation of sanctions) at the behest of the United States, (the EU) is now committing another major strategic error by designating our National Armed Forces as an alleged ‘terrorist organization,'” the minister said in X.
What is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps?
With the mission of protecting the Islamic Revolution and parallel to the conventional Armed Forces, the Revolutionary Guard is the most powerful military body in the Persian country and controls the Iranian ballistic missile program.
It was created after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, this military body responds directly to the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, the highest political and spiritual authority of Iran.
“If the supreme leader represents the power of the pen, the Revolutionary Guard is his sword,” said analyst Afshon Ostovar in his book “Vanguard of the Imam” about what this military body means for the Islamic Republic.
Its main function is military
“It is the mechanism that transforms the leader’s authority into an armed and coercive force,” added the Middle East expert.
Its main function is military, with some 125,000 troops divided between ground, naval, air and espionage forces and the task of supervising Iran’s strategic weapons such as its ballistic missiles.
But it is also a cultural institution and an economic conglomerate with interests in oil, gas, telecommunications, transportation, construction and media, according to Ostovar.
It also controls the Basiji, a paramilitary militia of Islamic volunteers with great influence in Iranian society that has four million members spread across schools, universities, factories, government offices and mosques.
“The basiji are the front line of the Revolutionary Guard against political and social change,” Ostovar wrote.
Through the Quds Force (Jerusalem), the foreign arm of the Guard, Tehran leads the so-called Axis of Resistance, an informal alliance formed by organizations such as the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Houthis of Yemen, the Hamas movement, the Islamic Jihad and the militias in Iraq, among others.
This alliance, deeply anti-Israeli and anti-American, was one of the pillars of Iran’s foreign policy, now in low hours after the blows suffered by Hezbollah and Hamas, and the fall from power of former Syrian president Bachar al Assad.
Hard blows
The elite military body suffered severe blows during the June 12 war initiated by Israel against Iran, with the death of its commander in chief, General Hossein Salamí, or the person in charge of its ballistics program, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, among others.
Now, General Mohammad Pakpur leads the organization, while Brigadier General Majid Mousavi is in charge of its aerospace arm.
It was not the first time that senior members of the Guard were assassinated by foreign powers. In 2020, Washington assassinated the then commander in chief of the Quds Force, General Qasem Soleimani, in an attack in Baghdad.
The United States designated the Quds Force, a division of the Revolutionary Guard, as a terrorist group in 2007, and in 2019, under the Donald Trump Administration (2017-2021), the Guard was itself included on the blacklist of terrorist groups.
