DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran said Monday it had summoned all of the European Union ambassadors in the Islamic Republic to protest the bloc’s listing of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a terror group.
The EU listed the Guard as a terror group last week over its part in the bloody crackdown on nationwide protests in January.
Other countries, including the U.S. and Canada, have previously designated the Guard as a terrorist organization.
While the move is largely symbolic, it does add to the economic pressure squeezing Iran, particularly has the Guard has a major influence on the country's economy.
Iran also faces the threat of U.S. military action in response to the killing of peaceful demonstrators and over possible mass executions. The American military has moved the USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers into the Mideast. It remains unclear whether President Donald Trump will decide to use force.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told journalists that the ambassadors had been summoned on Sunday.
The Guard emerged from Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution as a force meant to protect the Shiite cleric-overseen government and was later enshrined in its constitution. Operating in parallel with the country’s regular armed forces, it grew in prominence and power during a long and ruinous war with Iraq in the 1980s. Though it faced possible disbandment after the war, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei granted it powers to expand into private enterprise, allowing it to thrive.
The Guard’s Basij force likely was key in putting down the demonstrations, starting in earnest from Jan. 8, when authorities cut off the internet and international telephone calls for the nation of 85 million people. Videos that have come out of Iran via Starlink satellite dishes and other means show men likely belonging to its forces shooting and beating protesters.
