US Lawmakers Urge EU to Designate Iran’s Revolution Guards as Terrorist

More than 130 Democratic and Republican members of US Congress have issued an open letter urging the European Union to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, saying the move will help prevent “further threats to democracy and freedom."

In a letter addressed to EU foreign policy chief Joseph Burrell and dated April 10, the lawmakers cited the IRGC's involvement in numerous cases of "human rights violations and terrorist activities, including the brutal suppression of Iranian protesters and the delivery of deadly drones to Russia."

The Islamic Republic “remains a leading sponsor of terror,” the letter reads, adding that the IRGC has “freely and openly carried out plots targeting citizens in countries across the EU” over the past decades.

The US designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization in 2019. In January, the European Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of a measure calling on the bloc to add the IRGC and its affiliates to the EU's terrorist list, but officials have cited legal obstacles preventing such a move.

In their bipartisan letter, the US lawmakers acknowledged the legal complexities related to the designation of the IRGC, but they insisted that there "is ample evidence to provide the necessary basis for calling it a terrorist organization."

The representatives called on the EU to deal with the matter with the utmost urgency, given the increasing threat that Iran poses to EU member states and their citizens.