France is to back a move led by Italy for the European Union to list the Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a "terrorist organisation", the French presidency said Wednesday, after the force was accused of taking a leading role in a deadly crackdown on protests.
France "supports the inclusion of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the European list of terrorist organisations," the Élysee Palace said.
"The unbearable repression of the peaceful uprising of the Iranian people cannot go unanswered," Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot added in a post on X, confirming that France would back the listing.
"The extraordinary courage (the Iranian people) have shown in the face of the blind violence unleashed upon them cannot be in vain," Barrot said.
France had previously been hesitant to back such a move for fear it could cut all ties with Tehran.
The IRGC is seen as Iran's ideological army with the mandate to ensure the survival of the 1979 Islamic revolution. It is already listed as a terror group by Australia, Canada and the United States but not yet by the EU or UK.
A terrorist group designation by the EU would subject IRGC members to travel bans, asset freezes and "a prohibition on making funds or economic resources available to those listed", according to rules established by the European Council.
Iran's latest protests started on December 28 over a rise in the cost of living and rapidly spread nationwide. They were met with a violent response, the full extent of which only began to surface after more than two weeks of an unprecedented nationwide internet blackout.
Read more‘As in wartime’: Iranian doctors recount deadly crackdown on protesters
According to a tally published Wednesday by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, at least 6,221 people were killed, including 5,858 protesters, 214 government-affiliated forces, 100 children and 49 civilians who weren't demonstrating.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters)
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