Urging the European Union to Expeditiously Designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps As A Terrorist Organization Under Common Position and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Ms. TENNEY. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Joe Wilson, my good friend and dear colleague, and also the ranking member, my colleague from New York, Representative Meeks, for their support of this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of my resolution, H. Res. 288, that is on the floor today, the Encouraging the EU to DESIGNATE Resolution.

This resolution encourages our European Union allies to finally designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, as a terrorist entity under EU Common Position 931.

What is the IRGC? For those of you who do not know, the IRGC is an Iranian extra-military organization that both conducts the Iranian mullahs' acts of terrorism and is the link between Ayatollah Khamenei and other terror groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis out of Yemen.

For example, the IRGC Quds Force funds, arms, trains, and supports Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the PIJ. The IRGC's Basij has been a primary force for quashing the courageous protesters in the wake of the horrible killing of Mahsa Amini by the brutal Iranian regime. The IRGC Navy has antagonized U.S. ships in the Red Sea in violation of international law. The IRGC Quds Force has played a key role in Iranian-directed assassinations in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Bulgaria, and Cyprus in just recent years.

The threat posed by the IRGC is not only abroad. Just a few years ago, the IRGC engaged in a murder-for-hire plot to target former National Security Advisor John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

If anyone is concerned about whether IRGC is a terrorist entity, I encourage you to read my ``Report on IRGC Terrorist Activity'' that details the many terrorist plots the IRGC has been involved in. All the information is here. For those of you at home, you can access it on Tenney.house.gov. I took special effort to make sure that people knew exactly what this evil force was up to.

In 2019, President Trump declared the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization. While this was just a tremendous first step, we must encourage our allies to join us and confront the Iranian threat head- on. That is why, last year, I led numerous letters, and many of my colleagues joined with me, to the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and India, imploring them to please join us and designate the IRGC as a terrorist entity so we could impose sanctions.

Sadly, none of these countries have joined us yet. The Encouraging the EU to DESIGNATE Resolution would implore our EU allies to get off the sidelines and to take a stand against terrorism and for freedom and democracy.

Madam Speaker, I wish Josep Borrell, the EU's High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, were here today because I have a question for him: Do you stand with the United States and for freedom, or do you stand with the Iranian terrorists that have tried and succeeded in killing Europeans across the continent? Sadly, I think we all know the answer.

Madam Speaker, this isn't hard. Some would call it a no-brainer. It is time for the EU to join the U.S. and designate the IRGC as a terrorist entity. I urge all of my colleagues to support this commonsense resolution. We must stand together against the Iranian threat.

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