The United States and European Union are preparing new sanctions against Iran’s missile and drone program in response to the Islamic Republic’s attack on Israel, but the British and European governments are resisting pressure to name the elite of the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.
Janet Yellen, the US Treasury Secretary, said on Tuesday that the administration was prepared to take “additional sanctions against Iran in the coming days”. The United States would work with allies on measures to disrupt “the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activities,” Yellen said, while adding that there could be “more to be done” on Tehran’s oil trade.
A growing majority of EU capitals support the new sanctions, which would target Iranian networks that supply Iran-backed militant groups in the region, according to four people briefed on the matter.
But some European officials are wary of a further escalation of tensions with measures targeting the so-called axis of resistance – which includes Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iraqi militias – during such an unstable time in the Middle East.
Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister, said the EU had already imposed sanctions on Iranian military supplies used by Russia in its war against Ukraine.
She added that late last year, Germany, France and other EU partners pushed to expand the scope of sanctions to other types of missiles in Iran’s arsenal, “given how Iran and its proxies are destabilizing the Middle East.”
This was now likely. “I hope that we, as the EU, can finally take this step together,” Baerbock said.
In addition to blacklisting Iran’s missile and drone programs, the United States will also target entities supporting the IRGC and Iran’s Defense Ministry, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.
“These new sanctions and other measures will continue to exert constant pressure to contain and degrade Iran’s military capacity and effectiveness and address its range of problematic behaviors,” he said.
Western governments have been working on a coordinated response to the Iranian missile and drone attack on Israel this weekend and will discuss their options at this week’s G7 foreign ministers meeting in Italy. However, while they wish to give the impression that they are taking strong measures, they are also seeking to ease regional tensions and avoid the outbreak of a real regional conflict.
“Those who are still against [widening the sanctions] We fear that this could destabilize relations with Iran and deprive us of our influence over Tehran,” said an EU official briefed on the negotiations.
The G7, as well as the EU itself, declared after the Iranian attack that they were ready “to take additional measures now and in response to further destabilizing initiatives.”
Iran, which launched the attack in retaliation for an alleged Israeli strike on its consular building in Damascus this month, is already the subject of hundreds of Western sanctions.
Banning the 120,000 Revolutionary Guard, the most powerful wing of Iran’s military, as a terrorist organization would be a harsher response than extending anti-drone sanctions.
But European and British officials fear that such a move risks retaliation from Iran, including the possibility that Tehran will sever diplomatic ties or target dual nationals in their countries.
The Netherlands, Sweden and the Czech Republic have called for measures directly targeting the Revolutionary Guards, three diplomats said, but the proposal was rejected by several countries, including Germany and France. EU sanctions require the agreement of all 27 member states.
German officials say the legal conditions for putting the Revolutionary Guards on the EU terror list are not met. In particular, the group has not carried out a terrorist attack in the EU.
“They are against ‘turning the tables,’” the EU official said, adding that imposing sanctions on the Revolutionary Guards would be “a declaration of war.”
The Guards operate alongside Iran’s conventional military to protect the republic from domestic and foreign threats. Its Quds Force, responsible for foreign operations, coordinates training and arming with the myriad Iranian-backed militant groups in the region.
Sanam Vakil, Middle East director at Chatham House, said European capitals were trying to “draw the line between de-escalation and a meaningful response to the Iranian attack”.
“But there is still debate about the usefulness of banning” guards, “as well as the broader impact it could have on security,” Vakil said.
It is unusual for a government to designate another state’s military as a terrorist organization, although the United States gave the Guardian Guard that designation in 2019 under then-President Donald Trump.
Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who began a review into banning the Guards in 2022, said on Monday that the organization posed a “significant threat to the safety and security of the United Kingdom and our allies “.
There has long been a division within the British government over banning the Revolutionary Guard, with some officials saying such a move would lead Tehran to completely sever ties with the United Kingdom. They argue that the British embassy in Tehran is valuable to the United States as well as the United Kingdom.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said Tuesday evening after a virtual meeting of EU foreign ministers that officials in Brussels would start working on the text of new sanctions, at the request of member states.
Discussions are expected to continue at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on Wednesday. “We are not going to increase tension,” said another European diplomat. “Sanctions going beyond drones and including the Revolutionary Guards are completely excluded. »
Christiane Hoffmann, spokesperson for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said: “We already have a very comprehensive sanctions regime. [on Iran]. We will now consult our EU partners to find out whether and in what form the sanctions can be further strengthened.”
Additional reporting by Javier Espinoza and Laura Dubois in Brussels, Felicia Schwartz in Washington and Lucy Fisher in London
