Tehran slams Sweden’s IRGC blacklisting as aggression against Iran’s sovereignty

Iran has strongly condemned Sweden’s blacklisting of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), saying the designation violates international law and amounts to an aggression against the Islamic Republic’s sovereignty and national security.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani made the remarks on Thursday, one day after the Swedish parliament voted in favor of designating the IRGC as a “terrorist” organization.

“The Swedish parliament’s illegal act is influenced by terrorist and banished elements working against the Iranian nation,” he said.

"The anti-Iranian move is contrary to accepted rules and principles of international law, including the equality of [national] sovereignties and non-interference in the internal affairs of governments, and tantamount to an aggression against Iran’s sovereignty and national security,” the official added..

Kan’ani also advised the Swedish government to exercise “foresight and tact” in the face of plots hatched to damage Tehran-Stockholm relations.

The Swedish government, he added, should “think about the consequences of its unmeasured act and not sacrifice its national interests and long-standing ties with Iran for the interests of terrorists, the Zionist apartheid regime and the enemies of the Iranian nation.”

Kan’ani also said that the IRGC is a state institution that has emerged from the Iranian nation with an official and legal identity enshrined in the Constitution, noting that the elite military force, along with other units of the Armed Forces, has been protecting Iran’s national security and borders.

For more than a decade now, the IRGC has played a decisive role in the fight against international Takfiri and Daesh terrorism as well as a historic role in protecting regional and international peace and security, he asserted.

Iran: World's largest anti-terror institution blacklisted by ‘global club of terrorists’

Iran has slammed the European Parliament’s call on the EU to designate IRGC as a terrorist entity.

The IRGC, also known as the “Sepah”, was established on April 22, 1979, by the founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Khomeini as a paramilitary organization charged with protecting the newborn Islamic Republic.

The force closely cooperates with the Iranian Army to counter foreign threats as manifested during the 8-year war imposed by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on Iran in the 1980s.

The IRGC has made great sacrifices in the fight against terrorist groups operating in the region. It has also helped the Iranian people during tough times such as natural calamities.

In 2019, the US State Department designated the Guards as a terrorist organization – an unprecedented action against the military of a sovereign state.

Also, in a non-binding resolution in January, the European Parliament called for the IRGC to be put on the European Union’s “terrorist” list and insisted that sanctions targeting Tehran had to be expanded.

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