Supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) will stage a protest outside the EU Summit on Thursday afternoon.
The demonstration denouncing the Iranian regime will take place outside the EU institutions at 13:30 on Thursday. The protestors are calling on the bloc to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organisation while Iran suffers from regional conflicts, domestic repression and escalated executions.
The IRGC was founded in 1979 in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. In order to be designated a terrorist organisation by the EU, there must be at least one ruling issued by a judicial body in an EU Member State. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court in Germany has issued a suitable ruling which must now be approved by all 27 Member States.
In the meantime, the EU has sanctioned the national airline Iran Air for transporting military equipment to Russia. President-elect of the NCRI Maryam Rajavi welcomes these sanctions but says that this measure alone is "inadequate".
"The EU must immediately designate the IRGC as a terrorist organisation," she said. "Reluctance and procrastination in doing so will only embolden Iran’s ruling dictatorship, encouraging it to intensify its pursuits of terrorism and warmongering, and to accelerate its program to develop nuclear weapons."
Rajavi's organisation says over 267 executions have occurred since Masoud Pezeshkian took office in August. Morality police – who beat Mahsa Amini to death in 2022 – have intensified their actions against the public and regional conflict has caused widespread instability.
