Iran says it now considers all militaries of EU nations to be terror groups

Women cross a street under a huge banner showing hands firmly holding Iranian national flags – a sign of patriotism – in Tehran, Iran (Vahid Salemi/AP)

The speaker of Iran’s parliament has said the Islamic Republic now considers all European Union militaries to be terrorist groups, lashing out after the bloc declared the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard a terror group over its bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.

The announcement by Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a former Guard commander, of the terror designation will likely be mostly symbolic. Iran has used a 2019 law to reciprocally declare other nations’ militaries terror groups following the United States declaring the Guard a terror group that year.