BRUSSELS. Characteristic Iranian Revolutionary Guard how a terrorist organization is viewed European Unionin a critical diplomatic shift that threatens to derail the revival of an international treaty on Iran’s nuclear weapons.

The initiative, backed by France and Germany, will be Brussels’ response to the export of Iranian drones to Russia, as well as the violent crackdown on protests in Iran. Paris and Berlin expressed their support for the designation of the Guards as a terrorist organization during a meeting of EU foreign ministers last week, according to a Financial Times report. “Many members will agree with this,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.

Characteristics of the military body of a foreign state as terrorist organization is particularly rare and emphasizes the tightening of the attitude of Western states towards Islamic democracy. The Trump administration designated the Guards as a terrorist organization in 2019. However, France and Germany signed a 2015 treaty on Iran’s nuclear weapons.

Paris would prefer that the definition of a terrorist organization refer to individual departments and directorates of the guards corps, and not to the whole. The German Foreign Ministry, for its part, warned of significant legal barriers to listing.

Vengeance plans

An Israeli drone struck military targets in Isfahan, central Iran.

At the beginning of the month, the European Parliament adopted a decision calling on EU member states. declare the Guards a terrorist organization. In retaliation, Tehran plans to label EU member armies as terrorists.

The 120,000-strong Revolutionary Guard was created after the 1979 revolution to protect the Islamic Republic, and since then the corps has grown in size significantly to become the elite of Iran’s armed forces.

At the same time, the American newspapers The New York Times and The Washington Post link the drone attack on the military complex in Isfahan, central Iran, to the actions of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad on January 28. A day later, the Israeli Air Force attacked a car convoy in Syria with Iranian weapons, killing seven people.

The attack in Isfahan, the first of its kind since Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu returned to power, comes at a time when the West accuses Iran of preparing a new batch of weapons and drones for Russia and its military operations in Ukraine. The bombardment of Isfahan was carried out with the help of small four-engine drones equipped with bombs. Their short range means that the drones took off from a point in Iranian territory.

The Iranian space research center is located in the city of Isfahan. Iranian ballistic missiles are manufactured there, and uranium enrichment takes place at underground facilities in the area. “Such actions will not shake the determination of our scientists to develop the peaceful applications of nuclear energy,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said.