The Council of Foreign Ministers of the European Union did not respond to the European Parliament's call to include the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Union's terrorist list.
The parliament justified the call for the guards' part in the violent suppression of the popular demonstrations against the Iranian regime, which have been going on for several months.
Even before today's meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the European High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, Joseph Borrell, clarified that the inclusion of the Guards in the terrorist list is conditional on the existence of a sentence against the organization in a court in one of the countries of the European Union, and such a sentence does not currently exist.
German Foreign Minister Anlana Barbuk talks with her Finnish, Portuguese and Dutch colleagues, today in Brussels, photo: AP
However, beyond this bureaucratic argument, sources in Brussels say that the real reason for not including the Revolutionary Guards in the terrorist list is the fear of Germany and France that such a move would lead to a complete loss of the chances of renewing the nuclear agreement with Iran.
Although the negotiations on this agreement have been frozen and official spokesmen of the American administration have referred to the nuclear agreement as a "dead agreement", the European powers are afraid of the escalation of the crisis between the West and Iran, especially in view of the military aid that Tehran provides to Russia.
The Iranian Foreign Minister, Amir Abdullahian, threatened this weekend that if the Union includes the Revolutionary Guards in its terrorist list, Iran will cancel its membership in the international agreement on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Other senior Iranian officials have threatened in recent days that a European decision against the patrols would constitute a declaration of war, and would lead Iran to see European military forces stationed in the Persian Gulf region as hostile forces.
Despite the postponement of the parliament's call, the Council of Foreign Ministers decided to impose new sanctions on Iran and add 37 Iranian individuals and entities to the Union's sanctions list.
These names will be added to 146 individuals and 12 Iranian organizations, which are already under sanctions on behalf of the Union.
The sanctions prohibit the Iranian individuals and organizations, some of which are related to the Revolutionary Guards, from entering the territory of the European Union and their property located in the countries of the Union will be frozen.
This is the fourth round of sanctions on Iran by the European Union.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, issued a statement at the end of the Council of Ministers meeting, which said: "We have adopted a new package of sanctions against Iran, whose evidence is those who lead the suppression of the protests. The Union condemns the use of brutal and disproportionate force against peaceful demonstrators".
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