Iran's Parliament ready to counter European Parliament's anti-IRGC action: Speaker Qalibaf

Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf says the legislative body is ready to decisively counter the European Parliament's move to designate the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

"If the European Parliament wants to close the window of logic and defend terrorism…Majlis is ready to firmly counter any action [against the IRGC]," Qalibaf said after a meeting with IRGC Chief Major General Hossein Salami on Saturday.

"The enemies do not have a precise understanding of our nation and the IRGC, and specifically they have no knowledge and analysis regarding the relationship between the [Iranian] nation and the IRGC," he added.

He emphasized that enemies think that the IRGC is only a military force just like their own military forces, but the fact is that the IRGC and Basij forces come from within the Iranian nation.

The top Iranian parliamentarian urged the Europeans to correct their miscalculation vis-à-vis the IRGC.

The West has supported and equipped the Daesh terrorist group, but it was the IRGC that fought terrorism and ended the presence of Daesh terrorists in the region, Qalibaf said.

He noted that European countries are now supporting the anti-Iran terrorist group best known as the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) which has murdered some 17,000 innocent Iranians.

The European Parliament on Wednesday adopted an amendment which was added to an annual foreign policy report, calling on the EU and its member states to include the IRGC on their terror list. The Parliament also passed another resolution on Thursday, calling for more sanctions against Iranian individuals and entities and putting the IRGC on the EU's terrorist list over alleged human rights violations during the recent foreign-backed riots.

This is while Iran’s intelligence bodies have found footprints of American and other Western spy agencies in recent violent riots inside Iran which claimed the lives of dozens of people and security forces.

The move by the European Parliament has been strongly condemned by Iranian officials, commanders, and the Armed Forces.

The Iranian Parliament passed a law in April 2019 designating American forces in West Asia, known as the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), as a terrorist organization. The move was made in response to the US blacklisting of the IRGC.

ME