Iran protests European Union's terror tag for Revolutionary Guard

Iran said on Monday it had summoned all of the European Union ambassadors in the Islamic Republic to protest the bloc’s listing of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a terror group.

 

The move comes as Iran faces the threat of US military action in response to the killing of peaceful demonstrators and over possible mass executions. The American military has moved the USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers into the Mideast. It remains unclear whether President Donald Trump will decide to use force, though regional countries have engaged in diplomacy in an effort to halt a new Mideast war from breaking out.

 

 

“Trump is trying to calibrate a response to Iran’s mass killing of protesters that punishes Iranian leaders without also embroiling the United States in a new, open-ended conflict in the region,” the New York-based Soufan Centre think tank said Monday.

 

“Some Trump aides seek to exploit Tehran’s weakness to secure major concessions from the regime, but Trump has set conditions for a diplomatic resolution that Tehran cannot accept.”

 

The EU agreed to list the Guard as a terror group last week over its part in the bloody crackdown on nationwide protests in January that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained.

 

Other countries, including the US and Canada, have previously designated the Guard as a terrorist organisation. While the move is largely symbolic, it does add to the economic pressure squeezing Iran, particularly as the Guard has a major influence on the country’s economy.

 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told journalists that the ambassadors had begun to be summoned on Sunday and that the process went into Monday as well.

 

Meanwhile, The European Union rejected Iran’s decision to categorise the armies of EU countries consider as “terrorist groups”, after the bloc listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorist organisation.

 

“We reject the announcement of the listing of EU armies and the accusation of terrorism,” said European Commission spokesperson Anouar El Anouni.