World

EU militaries to be considered terrorist groups: Iran

By AAP Newswire

Feb 1, 2026

Iran's flag over Tehran — Iran says it considers the armies of EU countries as "terrorist groups". -AP

Iran says it now considers all European Union militaries to be terrorist groups.

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The comment by Iran's speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, follows an EU agreement last week to list Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group over its part in the bloody crackdown on nationwide protests in the country.

Qalibaf cited a 2019 law as authorisation for the announcement. That law was passed after the US listed the Guard as a terrorist group and allows for reciprocal action by Iran against any nations that follow that decision.

"By trying to hit the Revolutionary Guards ... the Europeans actually shot themselves in the foot and once again made a decision against the interests of their ‌people by blindly obeying the Americans," he told fellow MPs, all wearing Revolutionary Guards uniforms in ‍support to the elite force.

"According to Article 7 of the law on countermeasures against the designation of the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation, the armies of European countries are considered terrorist groups."

Iranian politicians at the session later chanted: "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" at the session.

Qalibaf added the national security parliamentary commission would deliberate on the expulsion of EU countries' military attaches and follow up on the issue with the foreign ministry.

Set up after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shi'ite clerical ruling system, the Revolutionary Guards have great sway in the Islamic Republic, controlling swathes of the economy and ‍armed forces.

with Reuters