Foreign Minister Amirabdollahian warns on Twitter with a “countermeasure” for which a draft is already being drawn up.
Iran is threatening the European Union with consequences if the terrorist listing of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) proposed by the EU Parliament is implemented. “The European Parliament has shot itself in the foot and the response will be countermeasures,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian tweeted on Sunday. According to the Iranian chief diplomat, parliament is already working on a draft in this regard.
Amirabdollahian and IRGC commander Hussein Salami attended a meeting in Iran’s parliament on Sunday to discuss details. The exact countermeasures are unclear. But there was talk of detaining foreign oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, or even the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It is one of the most important shipping routes in the world, through which many oil transports run.
The IRGC are Iran’s elite armed forces tasked with protecting the state’s ideology and, most importantly, preventing a coup. In recent decades, the IRGC has also risen to become an economic powerhouse. The unit has come under increasing criticism for its role in suppressing the recent wave of protests. Many Iranians and politicians in Europe are now calling for the IRGC to be classified as a terrorist organization. In view of the numerous human rights violations since the protest demonstrations broke out in mid-September, the EU had already imposed sanctions on many high-ranking officers of the Revolutionary Guards.
Will decision “please regret”
The Iranian Foreign Ministry had already sharply condemned the decision on Thursday. Vice President and former IRGC chief Mohsen Resaei described the members of the European Parliament as “political midgets” who would bitterly regret their decision. On Sunday, the state-run daily newspaper even called for the breaking off of diplomatic and economic relations with all the European states that supported the IRGC’s terrorist listing.
The EU foreign ministers want to formally decide on new sanctions against Iran at a meeting on Monday, as diplomats had confirmed.
(APA/dpa)