After arson attack on synagogue
Germany wants to put Revolutionary Guards on terror list
27.05.2024, 19:59
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
Israel has long called for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to be listed as a terrorist organization. Now several EU states want to take this step. The reason for this is an arson attack on a synagogue in Germany, which, according to a court ruling, can be traced back to the regime.
Several EU states, including Germany, want the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to be classified as a terrorist organization based on a ruling by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court. At the request of the German EU delegation, among others, the legal service of the Council of the EU examined and confirmed that the ruling issued in Düsseldorf in December could be sufficient as a basis for an EU terror listing of the Revolutionary Guard, EU diplomats said. The ruling found that an Iranian state agency had ordered an attempted arson attack on a synagogue.
Israel has long been calling for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to be classified as a terrorist organization. This was reiterated after the major Iranian attack on Israel in April. In the past, the EU had always stressed that listing the elite forces as terrorists was not currently legally possible because it would require a national court decision or a ban from an administrative authority. Until recently, the EU’s foreign service had doubts as to whether the ruling from Düsseldorf met the necessary requirements.
According to information from EU circles, following the analysis of the legal service, several EU states now support the idea of initiating the procedural steps required for a listing of the Revolutionary Guards in the Council of the EU. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has repeatedly stressed in the past that she is in favor of a listing. However, it is still uncertain whether the 27 member states will give the necessary consent for a terrorist listing. It could only be decided unanimously.
Court ruling as a starting point
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has so far been seen in the EU as an opponent of classifying the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. One reason is the efforts to persuade Iran to stick to an agreement to limit its nuclear program. This is intended to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb.
The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court’s verdict was handed down last December for an attempted attack on a synagogue in Bochum. At the time, a German-Iranian was sentenced to a total prison sentence of two years and nine months for conspiring to commit serious arson and attempted arson.
As an elite force in Iran, the Revolutionary Guards protect the state ideology and are also supposed to prevent coup attempts. According to Iranian sources, they also carried out the attack on Israel in April, in which hundreds of rockets and drones were used, but hardly any damage was caused, partly because of the well-functioning air defenses of Israel and its partners. Diplomats stressed that listing the Guards as terrorists was primarily a symbolic step. The reason is that there are already EU sanctions against them.