The European Union has designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist sect over the brutal crackdown on protesters that led to death of thousands between December 2025 and January 2026.

The decision came shortly on Thursday in Brussels after France and Italy, both of which had previously resisted the move, fell in line amid mounting outrage over Iran’s violent suppression of demonstrations and the Internet shutdown imposed to stifle the flow of information.

Their support secured the unanimity required among all 27 European Union member states to place the IRGC on the bloc’s terrorist list.

“Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,”Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, wrote on social media Thursday afternoon. 

“Repression cannot go unanswered,” Ms. Kallas told reporters after the Thursday EU meeting. “Those who operate through terror must be treated as terrorists.”

The EU has similarly slapped a slew of sanctions on 15 Iranian individuals and six organisations deemed to have committed “serious human rights violations” which include “the use of violence, arbitrary detention, and intimidation tactics by security forces against demonstrators,” the European Union said in a missive. 

“The EU is in particular imposing restrictive measures on Eskandar Momeni, Iran’s Minister of the Interior and Head of the National Security Council, and members of Iran’s judicial system including Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, the Prosecutor General, and Iman Afshari, a presiding judge,” the statement added.

Companies involved in censoring protest-related content on social media platforms were also sanctioned.

Separately, the bloc penalised individuals and entities accused of supplying Russia with military weapons for use in its war against Ukraine.

The EU’s designation of the IRGC adds to a growing list of countries including the U.S. and Canada that have already classified the Iranian Guards Corps as a terrorist organisation.