Canada declares Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a ‘Terrorist’ Group, Urges Citizens to Leave Iran Revolutionary

Ottawa officially declared Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a “terrorist,” and a Canadian envoy in Tehran instructed citizens in Iran to depart the country. 

This Wednesday, the Canadian government clarified that the decision would help neutralise terrorism financing. ’’ This order from Canada read: “We know that identifying the IRGC through the Criminal Code listing mechanism will act as a deterrent and affirm that Canada will employ all the measures, local and international, in confronting the terrorist activities of the IRGC, whether individual or in collaboration with other listed terrorist organisations including Hezbollah and Hamas. ” 

  On Thursday, Iran criticised the move, labelling it an “unwise and unconventional politically motivated step,” the news agency Fars reported. Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Nasser Kanaani added that the measure will not target the actual capacities of the IRGC; instead, it will grow the legitimacy of its deterrent power, and Tehran has the opportunity to respond to Ottawa’s move. 

 Conservatives across Canada have called on Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for years to do this. On Wednesday, following his meeting with Prime Minister Trudeau, Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, said that the human rights situation in Iran was a factor, among other reasons. ”The Iranian regime, for decades, has ignored basic human rights both in Iran and elsewhere, and is uninterested in the conventions that organize the international community,” LeBlanc said. 

He further stated that listing the IRGC is a component of Canada’s more extensive systemic approach to make sure there is no immunity for Iran’s unlawful deeds and support for terrorism.  

 Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly urged Canadian citizens against travelling to Iran due to the high risk of ‘’arbitrary detention. ” Joly said: “For those who are in Iran now, the message is to let them come back home; for those who are thinking of going to Iran, don’t go there.” 

 The new listing means that any IRGC assets in Canada, including funds, must be blocked, and the Canadian people are barred from conducting any business with the group. The United States had earlier in 2019 placed the IRGC as a terrorist group.

 Hence, the IRGC is a separate military power that has some degree of independence and is a constituent part of the Iranian military, directly subordinate to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. 

 Historically, the relations between Canada and Iran have been complex and well-developed. Canada severed relations in 2012 over the country’s nuclear program and role in Syria. The relations worsened in 2020 after Iran accidentally shot down a Ukrainian plane that crashed and killed dozens of Canadian citizens and Ecuador residents. 

The plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran on a journey when Iran’s tensions with the US were high after the US drone strike that killed Iran General Qassem Soleimani. 

 In this case, Iran described the shootdown of the Boeing 737 as an accident that was a result of a human mistake. In response, an Iranian court handed down preliminary verdicts for ten people connected to the occurrence, including the controller of the air defence system. Iran also fixed the compensation that the bereaved families of the victims would receive at $150,000 and said it had commenced paying out the sum.