The Iranian Foreign Ministry responded with outrage on Thursday to the news that Canada had designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) an official terrorist organization, suggesting Tehran may issue a “retaliatory response” to the measure.
The IRGC is a formal arm of the Iranian Armed Forces that the regime uses to manage and develop terrorist proxies around the world. Its “Quds Force” is the wing primarily responsible for terrorist activity, including bombings that killed or injured hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq and Syria. The regime uses the IRGC generally, however, to maintain ties with terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah, the Yemeni Houthis, Hamas, and other associates.
President Donald Trump’s administration designated the IRGC a terrorist organization 2019 on the grounds that “Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft,” according to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Canada followed suit on Wednesday, stating through Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the IRGC has knowingly carried out, attempted to carry out, participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity.”
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani responded to the designation on Thursday, insisting that the IRGC is a legitimate entity as per the Iranian Islamic regime’s Constitution and calling Canada’s measure “political, unconventional and ill-advised.”
“Such irresponsible and provocative move follows the same wrong path that the Canadian government has been taking for over a decade under the influence of the group of warmongers,” Kanaani said, “true violators of human rights, and chief sponsors of terrorism.”
Kanaani repeated the regime’s claims that, rather than engage in terrorism, the IRGC fights terrorist entities, and he accused Ottawa of making a “hostile move” against Tehran.
He concluded, according to the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency, that Iran would consider an “appropriate and retaliatory response” to the measure. The outlet did not elaborate on what such a response may look like.
LeBlanc, the Canadian public safety minister, said in his announcement Wednesday that the designation of the IRGC was necessary due to Iran’s “complete disregard for human rights, both inside and outside Iran, as well as a willingness to destabilize the international rules-based order.”
“Listing the IRGC builds on the Government of Canada’s broader efforts to ensure that there is no impunity for Iran’s unlawful actions and its support of terrorism,” LeBlanc asserted. “Our government will always promote human rights and take action against those seeking to disrupt our way of life, here in Canada and around the world.”
In addition to designating the IRGC, the Canadian government warned citizens in Iran to leave as soon as possible in anticipation of potential retribution.
While many in the international community applauded the measures, conservatives in Canada recalled that radical leftist Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not make any moves towards designating the IRGC for years, delaying the process despite support in the House of Commons.
“Trudeau and his Liberal government took six years to list the IRGC… As a result of that delay, the IRGC has been able to grow stronger as a result of Trudeau’s inaction,” lamented Conservative Party officials Michael Chong and Melissa Lantsman in a statement on Wednesday.
Calls for Canada to designate the IRGC increased significantly after the terrorist entity shot down a commercial airliner, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, in early 2020, killing 85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents out of the 176 passengers killed altogether. The flight had taken off from Tehran, on its way to Kyiv, shortly before the shootdown, which took place in the days immediately after President Trump ordered an airstrike to eliminate Qassem Soleimani, who was head of the Quds Force at the time. The IRGC reportedly shot down the plane by mistake, confusing it with an American missile.
The Iranian government blamed the United States for the incident and rapidly cleared the crash site of any incriminating evidence. Despite this, relatives of the innocents killed on the flight pursued legal action against the state of Iran and succeeded in overriding sovereign immunity in Canada. In January 2022, a Canadian court ruled that the Iranian state must pay $84 million in damages to the families, a ruling Tehran has ignored. In turn, the Iranian state has conducted legal proceedings against Trump and Pompeo under the Islamic law, sharia, for ordering an airstrike against Soleimani.
In July 2023, Canada joined several other states that lost citizens on the flight to sue Iran at the International Court of Justice over the incident, demanding an apology.
The Association of Families of Flight PS752 welcomed the announcement this week that Canada had declared the IRGC a terrorist group.
“It has been a long journey. Long and painful,” board member Hamed Esmaeilion, who lost his wife and daughter on the flight, said. “It’s very important to punish those people or those organizations that were involved in atrocities against Canadians and Iranians.”
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