Iran News: Belgian Parliament Demands IRGC Terror Designation and Condemns Regime’s Wave of Executions

Staff WriterJuly 18, 2025
Iran News: Belgian Parliament Demands IRGC Terror Designation and Condemns Regime’s Wave of Executions
The Palais de la Nation in Brussels, seat of the Federal Parliament of Belgium | Photo by Trougnouf (Benoit Brummer), via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

The Palais de la Nation in Brussels, seat of the Federal Parliament of Belgium | Photo by Trougnouf (Benoit Brummer), via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Written by
Shahriar Kia

In a unanimous vote early Friday, July 18, the Belgian Parliament passed a landmark resolution calling for the European Union to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, while expressing grave concern over the clerical dictatorship’s ongoing wave of executions and systematic human rights violations.

The resolution, introduced by the New Flemish Alliance and the Liberal Party, also demands the immediate and unconditional release of Professor Ahmadreza Djalali, a dual national held hostage in Iran since 2016. Djalali, sentenced to death after a grossly unfair trial, recently suffered a heart attack in prison and remains in critical condition.

The motion marks one of the strongest parliamentary condemnations of the Iranian regime in Europe to date. Drawing on recent reports—including Amnesty International’s April 2025 documentation of at least 972 executions in Iran in 2024—the Belgian legislature denounced the use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression. “The Iranian regime uses executions to sow terror and suppress dissent,” the resolution states, pointing to recent death sentences handed down to political prisoners like Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani.

In the plenary session, MPs also voiced alarm over reports of imminent executions of multiple political prisoners. The resolution urges the Belgian government to publicly condemn these acts and to pressure the EU for harsher sanctions against the regime. Among the measures endorsed are:

Expanding sanctions to include judges, prosecutors, prison directors, and others complicit in sham trials;

Coordinating with EU partners to formally blacklist the IRGC;

Supporting civil society efforts to document and prosecute human rights abuses by the Iranian regime;

Increasing diplomatic and legal support for the UN’s fact-finding mission on Iran.

The resolution emphasizes that the Belgian government must oppose what it calls “hostage diplomacy” by the Iranian regime—a practice of detaining dual nationals or foreigners to extract political or economic concessions. Lawmakers stressed that condemning such behavior, alongside concrete legal and diplomatic actions, is essential to undermining impunity in Tehran.

Importantly, the resolution reflects growing recognition in Europe that the regime’s campaign of executions is not just a domestic issue but a systematic tool of state control. It notes the disproportionate targeting of ethnic minorities, including Baluch and Afghan communities, and calls for action to end executions of individuals arrested as minors—a violation of international law.

Belgium’s parliament made clear that this is not merely symbolic. It calls for concrete action across 21 points, including international cooperation to pursue legal accountability for crimes under international law, and funding for investigative bodies like the UN’s human rights mechanism on Iran. The document also insists on maintaining diplomatic leverage to support structural reforms, without legitimizing the regime’s brutality.

Belgium’s coalition government had already made its position clear earlier this year. In its official 2025–2029 Federal Coalition Agreement, released in February, the newly formed government explicitly called for the European Union to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization. The document condemned the Iranian regime’s systematic human rights violations, the repression of women, and its support for terrorism and regional destabilization. It also reaffirmed Belgium’s commitment to preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons through coordinated action with EU partners.

Staff WriterJuly 18, 2025
Arab-Islamic Committee in Defence of Ashraf
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