EU examines classifying IRGC as terrorist organization

Germany and the European Union are examining whether to classify Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Sunday.

Berlin last week said it was tightening entry restrictions on Iran beyond an already announced EU sanctions package. Germany condemned “in the strongest terms” the violent crackdown on demonstrators and the state repression of journalists, a government spokesperson said on Monday.

“I made it clear last week that we will launch another package of sanctions, that we will examine how we can also list the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation,” Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told broadcaster ARD on Sunday.

The move comes after the IRGC warned Iranians that Saturday would be their last day of taking to the streets to protest against the death of Mahsa Amini, in a sign that Iran may intensify its already fierce clampdown on widespread unrest.

Amini, 22, died in the custody of the country's “morality police” on September 13 while visiting Tehran with her younger brother.

About 1,000 people have been indicted in Tehran over rioting and the trials will be held in public this week, the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted the head of the judiciary in the Iranian capital as saying on Monday.

The IRGC's warning on Saturday was ignored as Iranian students clashed with security forces at a university in Tehran on Sunday.

Clashes broke out at the Islamic Azad University, where groups attacked protesters at a memorial ceremony for victims of a shooting at a major Shiite holy site in southern Iran, the country's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

University campuses have emerged as opposition bastions, playing a central role in the protest movement. Videos on social media purportedly showed security forces firing tear gas and live ammunition at students who were denouncing Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A video posted by the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights showed a member of the Basij, an IRGC paramilitary unit made up of volunteers, firing a pistol at close range at protesting students.