Tehran/Brussles, Feb 3 (.) Iran has summoned the ambassadors of European union member states in a sharp diplomatic rebuke to the EU’s decision to designate the country’s powerful theocratic paramilitary force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
According to a ministry statement, the ambassadors were called in by the deputy foreign minister for political affairs and senior officials, who conveyed Tehran’s “strong condemnation” of what it said was an “unjustified” and “unacceptable” move by the Council of the European Union.
Iran has accused the bloc of violating the UN Charter and principles of international law, including respect for national sovereignty, and said the designation amounted to an “unforgivable insult” to the Iranian nation.
The EU announced the decision on January 29, prompting an immediate backlash in Tehran. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that the move was a “major strategic mistake,” while Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said over the weekend that lawmakers had agreed to retaliate by labeling European national armed forces as terrorist groups.
At a weekly press briefing in Tehran on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ismail Baghaei said that the Islamic Republic was weighing a range of countermeasures. He noted that multiple response options had been prepared and submitted to Iran’s decision-making bodies following the EU’s designation.
Relations between Iran and several European capitals have deteriorated severely in recent months amid the widespread anti-government protests inside Iran and the strong European condemnation of Tehran’s brutal crackdown on demonstrators, with the IRGC blacklisting further increasing tensions, leading to the possibility of a total diplomatic fallout in the foreseeable future.
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