The EU terrorist list and the IRGC

Fighting terrorism is described as a top priority for the European Union. “As part of its response against terrorism after the attacks of September 11, 2001, in December of that year the EU established a list of persons, groups and entities involved in terrorist acts and subject to restrictive measures. The list includes persons and groups active both within and outside the EU.”
“The common position establishes that the list will be drawn up from precise information indicating that a decision has been taken by a judicial or equivalent competent authority in respect of the person, group or entity concerned. This decision may concern initiation of investigations or prosecution for a terrorist act or an attempt to carry out or facilitate such an act, or conviction for any of those actions.”
“Persons, groups and entities can be added to the list on the basis of proposals submitted by member states based on a decision by a competent authority of a member state or a third country.”
“The persons, groups and entities in this list are subject to both the freezing of funds and other financial assets, as well as enhanced measures related to police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.”
“In addition, no funds, financial assets and economic resources can be made available to them, either directly or indirectly. These are all EU external terrorists.”
“As from September 2016, the EU can apply sanctions autonomously to ISIL/Da'esh and Al-Qaida and persons and entities that are associated with or support them.” [1]
Unanimity among EU member states is required for an organization to be added to the EU terrorist list. [2]
 
The Islamist terrorist organizations Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which like the clerical regime in Iran, have a stated goal of destroying Israel, are all on the EU list of terrorist organizations. These organizations all receive political, financial and military support from the clerical regime through Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In addition, the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, which also receives support from the clerical regime, is on the EU terrorist list.
Furthermore, the Directorate for Internal Security under Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security, which must be assumed to have extensive cooperation with the IRGC, is also on the EU terrorist list.
Moreover 6 persons from Iran are also on the EU terrorist list. [3] [4] [5]
 
According to a report around 500 militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad had received special combat training in Iran in September 2023, under the supervision of the IRGC, leading up to the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. [6]
 
In the annual country reports on terrorism by the US Department of State form 2021, it is stated that Iran continued to be the leading state sponsor of terrorism, facilitating a wide range of terrorist and other illicit activities around the world. The IRGC is described as Iran’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorist activity abroad.
Furthermore, it is stated that “Senior al-Qa’ida (AQ) members continued to reside in the country, and Iran has refused to publicly identify members it knows to be living in Iran. Iran has allowed AQ facilitators to operate a core facilitation pipeline through Iran since at least 2009, enabling AQ to move funds and fighters to South Asia and Syria, among other locales.” [7] [8]
According to a UN report from 2023 the new de facto head of the Al-Qaida terrorist group, Saif al-Adel, is based in Iran. In that regard the US State Department spokesperson Ned Price stated that when it comes to his presence there, offering safe haven to Al-Qaida is just another example of Iran’s wide-ranging support for terrorism, and its destabilizing activities in the Middle East and beyond. [9] [10]
 
The IRGC thus provides direct or indirect political, financial and military support to at least 6 out of 23 organizations that the EU has classified as terrorist organizations. Accordingly, the IRGC supports 26% or a quarter of the terrorist organizations listed on the EU terrorist list.
In addition, 6 out of 13 persons on the EU terrorist list, equivalent to 46%, are from Iran.
 
Regarding the EU definition of terrorism and the IRGC, expert in the field Matthew Levitt writes, among other things, the following: “By any measure, the IRGC is actively engaged in exactly these types of activities, both in Europe and beyond. According to a data set maintained by this author of Iranian foreign operations (including assassination, abduction, and surveillance plots), over just the past five years Iran has instigated at least 33 plots in Europe. These include plots in EU member states like Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Other plots elsewhere in Europe occurred in Albania, Sweden, and the U.K. In each of these cases, investigations have been opened, and in many cases judicial authorities are engaged in active prosecutions targeting IRGC and other Iranian operatives. Consider, for example, the assassination plot targeting Bernard-Henri Levy in France; the plot targeting an Iranian dissident rally in Paris in 2018; plots surveilling and targeting Iranian dissidents in Albania, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Scotland, and the U.K.; and attacks on German synagogues in North Rhine-Westphalia. According to a recent report issued by Austria’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism, Iranian intelligence services - including the IRGC’s intelligence organization and its Quds Force - have spread in the country.”
“The EU should be able to rely on its own designation decisions targeting the IRGC for terrorism-related activities, such as the 2020 measure targeting Iran for its activities in Syria. That measure included Iran’s Quds Force, which the EU defined as ‘a specialist arm of the IRGC.’ That designation noted that the IRGC’s Quds Force helps the Syrian regime terrorize its own people. The EU has a long record of designating IRGC officials, in part to prevent terrorist financing. A 2012 EU measure specifically highlighted the IRGC Quds Force as being ’responsible for operations outside Iran’ and as Tehran’s principle tool ‘for special operations and support to terrorist groups.’” [11]
 
In two resolutions, from January 19 and March 16, 2023, the European Parliament called on the Council of the European Union to put the IRGC on the EU terrorist list. [12] [13]
This call is also supported by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. [14]
Furthermore, elected representatives in parliaments in a number of EU countries, including among others the Netherlands and Germany, have also called on their respective governments to do the same. [15] [16]
The Dutch government has expressed its support for putting the IRGC on the EU terrorist list. [17]
On May 10, 2023, the parliament of Sweden decided unanimously (349-0) that the IRGC should be classified as a terrorist organization. This happened with a call to the country's government to work to create agreement in the EU about including the IRGC on the EU terrorist list. [18] [19]
According to Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, there is a growing consensus among EU member states to put the IRGC on the EU terrorist list. [20]
 
Since the clerical regime's brutal suppression of the popular uprising against the regime in September 2022, the EU has introduced 10 sanctions packages against the regime, due to serious violations of human rights. In addition, the EU has introduced sanctions against the clerical regime because of the regime's support for the suppression of the population in Syria and Russia's illegal war in Ukraine. Among the individuals and entities subject to restrictive measures by the EU as a result of these sanctions, the largest group is affiliated to the IRGC. [21]
 
The call to include the IRGC on the EU terrorist list is also supported by the United States, where the organization is on the country's own terrorist list. [22]
In the Parliament of Great Britain, the Senate of Australia and the Senate of Canada, it has been agreed to call on the respective governments of the countries to categorize the IRGC as a terrorist organization. [23] [24] [25]
 
Based on the above, it is completely obvious that the IRGC should rightfully be on the EU terrorist list.
As in, for example, the Netherlands and Sweden, it would therefore be reasonable for the parliaments of EU member states to issue a call to their respective governments to work to create agreement in the EU on the inclusion of the IRGC on the EU terrorist list.