The Pasdaran are on the same level as Isis, al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. The European Union has excluded military intervention in Iran from its political agenda, but has taken up the weapon it deems most powerful, that of registering the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, better known as the Pasdaran, on the list of terrorist organisations.
Italy’s fear and Iran’s response
“If you act like a terrorist, you must be treated as such”, High Representative Kaja Kallas said yesterday, announcing the final approval – unanimously – of the EU Foreign Ministers on the decision to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation. The decision, described as “historic”, arose under the weight of the brutal repression of the ayatollah’s regime. The point of no return for Europe was the human toll: over 30 thousand victims during the bloody repression of the protests, according to some estimates by international and Iranian media.
Fears of possible reprisals from Tehran have also been overcome in recent hours by Madrid, Paris and Rome, who have not been able to ignore the sequence of mass arrests, torture, executions and violence against demonstrators in the last weeks of revolt in the Islamic Republic. As expected, the turning point immediately triggered Tehran’s reaction: “Soon they will realize they made a mistake”, thundered the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi.
Who are the Pasdaran, the Ayatollah’s parallel army
The Revolutionary Guard Corps, or, from Persian, pasdaran, was created in the aftermath of the Khomeini revolution. When then-Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran from exile in 1979, he found that the regular army was not a force he could count on, even though it had rebelled against the Shah, paving the way for his return to power. Khomeini therefore decided to create a well-indoctrinated and loyal militia, with one task: “Protect the Islamic Revolution and export it” to protect the oppressed and against “American imperialism”.
But when Ali Khamenei managed to knock out all his opponents and became Supreme Leader after Khomenei’s death, he strengthened what has become his private army. More than 40 years after its birth, the Revolutionary Guard Corps has expanded to include 180,000 men who are better trained, better equipped and better paid than the regular Iranian armed forces (Artesh). Despite being an ideological force whose leaders are chosen directly by the Supreme Leader, the Guardians of the Revolution operate like an elite army: they control the Basij militias – tens of thousands of men trained in social control and in enforcing Islamic rules on clothing, including the compulsory veil for women – and have intelligence, navy, air force and land forces. They are responsible for Iran’s missile program and protection of its nuclear program.
The Quds Force operates within them, an elite corps for operations abroad, which under the command of General Qassem Soleimani – killed by the United States in 2020 and now replaced by Mohammad Pakpour – has built the “axis of resistance”, the network of pro-Iranian Shiite militias active in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. The Quds Force itself is suspected of being involved in clandestine operations in Europe, including an attack on a synagogue in Bochum, Germany, in 2021. And this episode is the legal basis that allowed the Guardians to be included in the EU blacklist.
In addition to the military dimension, the Pasdaran also exert significant influence on internal politics, universities and numerous research centers. Their economic strength is concentrated in the Khatam al-Anbiya conglomerate, an affiliated holding company that controls hundreds of businesses, mostly in the infrastructure sector. According to US reports, proceeds from these activities finance Iran’s nuclear program and support Shiite militias across the region. The Pasdaran are supported by a large budget, which would range between six and nine billion dollars a year, equal to approximately 40% of Iran’s official military spending. A weight that translates into de facto control over the national economy, so much so as to consolidate the role of the Pasdaran as intermediaries and managers of parallel import-export networks. They directly own or control companies in almost all strategic sectors of the Iranian economy: infrastructure, ports, transportation, dams, energy, gas and oil, telecommunications, advanced technologies, banking and financial system. Their presence is widespread throughout the Islamic Republic.
The Pasdaran on the EU blacklist: what it means
The EU Council expressed itself unanimously – as often happens for decisions on foreign policy – sanctioning a political agreement which will be followed, in the next few days, by the formal adoption of the measure. After years of targeted sanctions, the EU takes a further step by targeting the Pasdaran as a whole, placing them on the European blacklist. The strong symbolic significance of the designation is accompanied by a new crackdown on sanctions: restrictive measures against 21 people and entities believed to be involved in the repression of internal protests in Iran and against 10 other individuals linked to Tehran’s military support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Key figures from the state and security apparatus end up in Brussels’ sights, including Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, Attorney General Mohammad Movahedi-Aza and the head of the public security police Seyed Majid Feiz Jafari, as well as several companies accused of orchestrating the Internet blackout during the demonstrations.
The agreement reached by Brussels has not received the approval of many critics and analysts, who believe it could compromise or even cut off the last political and diplomatic channels with Tehran, and worsen the position of European citizens still detained in Iran.
