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3. EU Approves New Iran Sanctions, Moves Toward Terrorist Designation of IRGC

European Union foreign ministers adopted new sanctions on Iran on Thursday targeting Iranian officials, including the interior minister, and entities involved in a violent crackdown on protesters and in the country's support to Russia, EU diplomats said on Thursday.

The ministers are also expected to reach a political agreement to include Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the bloc's list of terrorist organizations, putting the IRGC in a category similar to that of Islamic State and al Qaeda and marking a symbolic shift in Europe's approach to Iran's leadership.

"If you act as a terrorist, you should also be treated as terrorists," the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. 

Kallas, the former Estonian prime minister who now serves as the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said the measure would put the IRGC "on the same footing" with terror groups such as Al-Qaeda, Hamas and the so-called "Islamic State."

Some EU members, led by France, have long been reluctant to add the IRGC to that list, but Paris said on Wednesday it would support the move, paving the way for an approval, even though such a decision needs unanimity among the bloc's 27 members.