Iran’s Regime Goes Ballistic Over IRGC’s Possible Terrorist Designation

Amir2018TaghatiJanuary 22, 2023
Iran’s Regime Goes Ballistic Over IRGC’s Possible Terrorist Designation
This decision comes after five months of consecutive anti-regime protests in Iran that many consider as the country’s new revolution.

Written by
Shahriar Kia

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The European Parliament passed a resolution urging the European Union to designate the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. This unprecedented action and the growing calls in the green continent, where the appeasement policy was dominant for years, has caused much stir in the regime.

This decision comes after five months of consecutive anti-regime protests in Iran that many consider as the country’s new revolution.

“Including the IRGC in the list of terrorist organizations is in line with the failed street protests against the system. The enemies want to stop the nation,” said the Iranian regime’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, on January 19, according to Fars News Agency, an outlet linked to the IRGC.

According to the official news agency IRNA on Friday, Alireza Salimi, one of the regime’s high-ranking MPs, said the Majlis (parliament) would hold a session behind closed doors with the IRGC’s commander, Hossein Salami, and the regime’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, to address the issue.

On January 19, the Fars News Agency quoted MP Abbas Kaabi to be calling the move a declaration of war and warned that “the European have to bear the consequences of this dangerous game”.

“Today, we witnessed the adoption of the draft of an emotional, rough, and unprofessional resolution by the European Parliament. We have said before that the IRGC is an official and governmental institution,” the regime’s FM Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on January 19.

For decades, the Iranian opposition, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) Organization, and its parent coalition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), have endeavored and called for the IRGC’s proscription as the terrorist entity that it is. For decades, they have been exposing the illicit activities of the various branches and associated proxy groups of the IRGC that have been waging war against the neighboring countries as well as conducting terror attacks across the globe. NCRI’s revelations have become a decisive and influential baseline for many designations and sanctions regimes worldwide.

 

In her statement on January 19 regarding the EU Parliament’s resolution, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the NCRI’s president-elect, reminded that “ Article 2 of the ten-point plan for the Future of Iran calls for the Dissolution and disbanding of the IRGC, the terrorist Qods Force, plainclothes groups, Basij, the Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS), the Cultural Revolution Council, and all suppressive patrols and institutions.”

It is worth noting that Mrs. Rajavi has participated in dozens of conferences inside the European Parliament during the last decade, urging the EU leaders to blacklist the IRGC.

Following the adoption of the EP resolution, regime officials acknowledged the Iranian Resistance’s role in mobilizing European lawmakers to put the IRGC on the list of terrorist organizations, to render the regime’s ability to oppress people ineffective.

“The European parliament considers the IRGC as a terrorist organization. The MEPs concluded this a few hours ago. But who are those who signed this resolution? And with whom do they have frequent meetings? The answer is Maryam Rajavi,” Iran’s state TV reported on January 19.

“The Ministry of Defense condemned the EP’s action in considering the IRGC as a terrorist organization and underlined that this action is the continuation of supporting the rioters and the MEK,” Fars News Agency reported on January 20.

“The European Parliament’s action is a desperate reaction to its failure in supporting the recent riots in Iran. The IRGC’s confrontation with the MEK is the brightest part of its record,” the regime’s Army declared in a statement on January 20.

“The Europeans’ decision to blacklist the IRGC is like entering a dark corridor. They are committing a grave strategic error by listening to the MEK,” IRGC Brig. Gen. Hamid-Reza Moghadam Far, Hossein Salami’s advisor, said on Friday, according to the state-run Tasnim News Agency.

Besides acknowledging their fear of the organized Resistance movement and the mounting international pressure on the regime, authorities and state media made some contradictory remarks. Some tried to boost the morale of their demoralized forces by downgrading the significance of the possible designation of the IRGC, and some showed their agony by resorting to terrorist threats. Some officials made ridiculous comments about the designation of Western armies and security forces as terrorist organizations.

 

“Calling the IRGC a terrorist organization bares no result on the ground,” Mohammad Ali Al-e Hashem, the supreme leader’s representative in Tabriz, said on Friday.

“Majlis will retaliate. We will designate the European countries’ armies as terrorist organizations and deal with them in the region, accordingly,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the parliament speaker, said on January 19.

“If they ratify this law, we will use our right to retaliate and consider the European forces as terrorists. And we will deal with them as we do with other terrorists,” Keyhan daily, known as the supreme leader’s mouthpiece, wrote on January 20.

These terrorist threats further highlight the necessity to include the IRGC on the terrorist organization’s list. As Mrs. Rajavi underlined, this decision is “long overdue.”

She further highlighted that the IRGC’s designation is “indispensable to confronting the biggest terrorist and suppressive organization and state in the world today, which have shed the blood of millions of people in Iran and the region in the last four decades.”

As four decades of fruitless efforts to talk the clerical regime into reason have demonstrated, the regime’s vast terror network only survives and thrives on appeasement and yielding to its extortion. It’s high time to try a change for a change.

Amir2018TaghatiJanuary 22, 2023
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