Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned the European Union on Saturday against making a “mistake” by designating it as a terror organisation, after the bloc’s parliament asked for the designation, news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Saturday.
Members of the European Parliament agreed on Wednesday to add the IRGC to the 27-nation bloc’s terror list in “light of its terrorist activity, the repression of protesters, and its supplying of drones to Russia,” as per the report.
The vote is not legally binding, but it comes as EU foreign ministers prepare to debate toughening sanctions against the Islamic Republic next week.
“If the Europeans make a mistake, they must accept the consequences,” IRGC leader Major General Hossein Salami said in his first words on the EU move, AFP reported citing Guards’ Sepah News website.
The European Union “thinks that with such statements it can shake this huge army,” Salami remarked, as stated in the report.
“We are never worried about such threats or even acting on them, because as much as our enemies give us a chance to act, we act stronger,” he added, the report said.
The Guards command the volunteer Basij paramilitary force, which has been fighting protesters since mid-September, following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest for allegedly breaching Iran’s women’s dress code.
According to Iranian authorities, hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been slain and others have been detained as a result of the turmoil.
The Guards, which were founded soon after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, report to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and have their own ground, naval, and air forces.
The United States has previously placed both the IRGC and its external arm, the Quds Force, on its list of “foreign terrorist organisations”.
Salami made the remarks while meeting with Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a former commander of the Guards air force, the report said.
“We in the parliament are ready to deal firmly with any action that tries to harm the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and distort the truth,” Ghalibaf was reported by Sepah News as saying.
(With Inputs From AFP)