Despite anti-IRGC demonstrations in Strasbourg by more than 10000 Iranians, EU’s High Representative Josep Borrell said they can’t call a group terrorist simply because they don’t like them. UK’s Foreign Office also put the plan on hold due to the fear that such actions could harm diplomatic communication channels.
Borrell’s efforts to neglect the developments of the last five months in Iran did not stop there and in his interview with The Wall Street Journal, he claimed there are no better options to deal with Iran’s nuclear issue than reviewing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal. But is keeping the Islamic Regime in Iran the best option? Is it really dangerous to officially recognize the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as terrorists?
The Council of European Union defines the following acts as terrorism:
- attacks upon a person's life or physical integrity which may cause death;
- kidnapping or hostage-taking;
- seizure of aircraft, ships, or other means of public or goods transport;
- participating or supporting the activities of a terrorist group
The Islamic regime in Iran has hired people to assassinate Iranian-American activist and journalist Masih Alinejad in the U.S., for the second time. The Guardian and CNN reported systematic rape and torture of Iranian protestors by the regime’s security forces including IRGC. The Times reported that the regime hires criminal gangs in the UK and other western countries for assassinations. The regime’s intelligence forces, namely Ettelaat Sepah - IRGC’s intelligence division- are also responsible for the arbitrary arrest of EU and U.S citizens, using them as hostages for the extradition of the regime’s criminals such as Hamid Nouri and Asadollah Asadi. Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele is the latest hostage of the regime, being sentenced to 40 years in prison on alleged charges of espionage.
The regime also has a habit of seizing foreign ships in the Persian Gulf and using them as a bargaining chip to pressure the west, the two Greek ships Delta Poseidon and the Prudent Warrior are the latest examples in this regard. Iran’s support of terrorist organisations is also subject to no doubt as the regime has deep ties with Hamas.
Thus, as far as the definition of terrorism by the EU Council goes, the regime in Iran and its executive arm IRGC is guilty of almost every crime in the book. Asking for legal evidence to call the regime in Iran terrorist is like asking for proof that the earth is not flat: it’s already been proven countless times, you just need to open your eyes and see it.
The reason western countries are deliberately refusing to officially go through the process is that they are afraid of the consequences. They think that JCPOA can keep Ayatollahs under some sort of control. But can it?
The Alternative
There was a time that even I considered JCPOA the only option on the table; when the people of Iran were suffering in silence and the regime had seemingly everything under control. But with the Woman Life Freedom revolution in Iran, there is no need to settle with the minimum.
The regime in Iran would never act like a normal, responsible political entity. They are after a new religious empire and nothing can stop them from pursuing that goal. The very nature of the regime is tied to xenophobia and crushing the western culture. Their agenda has always been taking people hostage, whether it’s American ambassadors in the 70s or Belgian aid workers in the 2020s.
There is not a single sign to show Khamenei’s good faith toward the West while he continuously calls them enemies. JCPOA would only postpone the inevitable which is the regime’s effort to get nuclear weapons and implement its ultimate extorsion plan: taking the whole world hostage with nuclear deterrence.
On February 10th, 2023, the leaders of Iranian opposition groups gathered at Georgetown University to discuss “The Future of Iran’s Democracy Movement”. Reza Pahlavi, Masih Alinejad, Nazanin Boniadi, and Hamed Esmaeilion were among the people who talked about an Iran without the Islamic Republic, without religious fanatics like Khamenei; a country that no longer seeks to destroy Israel but to cooperate with it to improve water management in Iran. For the first time in the last 45 years, the world has witnessed the unity of Iranian opposition; that Iran won’t become another Syria as long as the west stops supporting the regime.
This is the alternative to JCPOA: a democratic country that wants nothing but the prosperity of its people. While many talk about the dangers that the Iranian Regime may cause for citizens of Western countries in case of putting IRGC on the terrorist listing, nobody can guarantee that with JCPOA and the money IRGC gets from the deal, the arbitrary arrest of European citizens, the regime’s support of terrorists in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Syria and the systematic violation of human rights in Iran would stop. But with the regime gone, all these problems would be solved and the only way to do that is to support the opposition and listen to the concerned voices of Iranians across the globe that call IRGC terrorists.
In an interview with Al Arabiya, Mike Pompeo said they were warned if the U.S leave JCPOA, move their embassy to Tel Aviv or kill Qasem Soleimani, Iran would start a war. They did all three and not a single American soldier was ever harmed because of it. Trump might not have been the best U.S. president, but he knew Ayatollahs well. As Pompeo says in the same interview, they managed to demonstrate they are “prepared to protect things that matter to American people”.
The European countries need to do the same thing and demonstrate their unity and strength by supporting the regime’s opposition forces and cutting all ties with Ayatollahs. This is the only solution to this problem and the only way to bring stability to the most infamous region on the planet: The Middle-East.
