Labeling IRGC as a terrorist organization will push Europe into a cycle of chaos, insecurity

Jafar Ghanadbashi, speaking with Taghrib News Agency(TNA), highlighted Europe’s historical role in shaping international conventions and legal frameworks. He argued that branding an official state institution as a terrorist entity effectively dismantles the very norms Europe claims to have created, pushing the world toward a new phase of instability, disorder, and anarchy—one that Europeans themselves will suffer from more than anyone else.
He emphasized that Europe’s economic, commercial, and military interests are spread across the globe, with European forces stationed in various regions. By labeling the IRGC as a terrorist organization, Europe places itself in a position where reciprocal measures become conceivable, potentially endangering its strategic interests—especially in West Asia, where Europe holds substantial economic and energy stakes.
Ghanadbashi argued that the EU’s decision lacks expert assessment and is driven more by U.S. pressure and Israeli influence than by European national interests. Had European policymakers evaluated the real consequences, he said, they would never have embarked on such a costly path and will likely be forced to reverse course soon.
He added that this move revives memories of Europe’s own historical record of violence and terrorism—from French colonial atrocities in Algeria to Germany’s role in global conflicts, and the involvement of European states in the emergence and strengthening of extremist groups like ISIS, with documented cases of European intelligence officers operating within such groups.
Referring to Europe’s colonial legacy, he noted that European museums are filled with artifacts taken from other nations. The Louvre Museum in Paris, for example, houses countless cultural treasures from abroad, while few traces of European civilization appear in museums outside Europe—reflecting a long history of coercion, plunder, and violence in the Global South.
He further argued that even the spread of languages such as French and English occurred largely through colonial expansion, military force, and coercive policies. The memory of the Crusades and Europe’s bloody campaigns in West Asia, he said, reinforces the reality that much of Europe’s history is intertwined with violence and terrorism.
Ghanadbashi concluded that the EU’s recent decision shows that it continues the legacy of those who laid the foundations of global terrorism. Rather than pressuring the IRGC or the Islamic world, he argued, this move ultimately undermines Europe’s own moral and political legitimacy.