On January 29th, the EU has listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, ending years of division over the issue in response to the regime’s brutal repression of protesters.

“Repression cannot go unanswered,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, on Thursday. The paramilitary organisation has played a significant role in suppressing demonstrations in Iran. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,” she wrote on X.

Hannah Neumann, chair of the European parliament’s delegation for relations with Iran, said the IRGC listing was a “long-overdue political signal that massive violence and transnational repression will no longer go unanswered”.

She said in a statement: “This listing is not merely symbolic. It carries very concrete legal consequences: assets are frozen, and any financial or material support becomes a criminal offence.”

The EU also added 15 Iranian government officials and six organisations to its sanctions list for their role in “serious human rights violations” in the repression of protesters. The listings included Iran’s minister of the interior, Eskandar Momeni, and several IRGC commanders, senior police and law enforcement officers, an EU statement said.