Israel calls for Iran's Revolutionary Guards to be declared terrorist
Following Iran's missile and drone attacks on Israel, the Israeli Foreign Ministry says one immediate response would be to classify the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which carried out the attacks, as a terrorist organization.
According to a statement on Sunday, which Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat also posted on social media platform X, Israel would also impose "painful sanctions" on Iran, including on the area of missile development.
The Iranian attack was accompanied by additional terrorist attacks by Iraqi militias, the Houthi militia in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, said Haiat.
Haiat said Iran's attack proves what Israel has been declaring for years, that Iran is the biggest threat to regional stability and the source of the region's terrorist attacks.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran's elite armed forces, are supposed to protect the state ideology and, above all, prevent a coup. The unit is increasingly being criticized for its involvement in repressive measures at home.
In the EU, there are legal hurdles to putting the Revolutionary Guards on the terror list, and some experts have argued that this would first require a court decision by a member state.
Sanctions have also been imposed on the Revolutionary Guards. Iran has threatened to take countermeasures. There has been talk of detaining foreign oil tankers in the Gulf or even blocking the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
It is one of the most important shipping routes in the world, through which many oil shipments pass.
