[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 288 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 288
Urging the European Union to expeditiously designate the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization under Common
Position 931, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 13, 2023
Ms. Tenney (for herself, Ms. Porter, Mr. Kean of New Jersey, Mr.
Schneider, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Gottheimer, Mr. Norman, Mrs. McBath,
Mr. Nunn of Iowa, Ms. Brownley, Mrs. Boebert, Mr. Moskowitz, Ms. Mace,
Ms. Barragan, Ms. Salazar, Ms. Manning, Mr. Lawler, Ms. Titus, Mr.
Mast, Mr. Trone, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mr. Kilmer, Mr. Levin,
Mrs. Lee of Nevada, and Mr. Ryan) submitted the following resolution;
which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Urging the European Union to expeditiously designate the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization under Common
Position 931, and for other purposes.
Whereas the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Basij paramilitary
force have been used by Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei to maintain the
Iranian regime's power;
Whereas the IRGC Basij have been used to quash numerous protests and democratic
uprisings in Iran, including the Green Movement;
Whereas the IRGC Basij continue to perpetrate wide-scale human rights abuses
inside Iran, including against women, children, and minorities;
Whereas the IRGC Basij are actively suppressing the ongoing protests sparked by
the death of Mahsa Amini and calls for the regime to be toppled;
Whereas the IRGC Basij are responding to these demonstrations with violence,
arrests, and murder, including the arrest of journalists covering these
protests;
Whereas the IRGC trains, funds, arms, and shares intelligence with dangerous
proxy forces throughout the Middle East and abroad, including Hezbollah,
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Houthis, and Kata'ib Hezbollah,
which have targeted civilians and both Europeans and Americans;
Whereas the IRGC continues to provide critical support to Bashar al-Assad and
his autocratic regime in Syria;
Whereas the IRGC is actively fueling Russian President Vladimir Putin's illegal
war of aggression against Ukraine through the provision of hundreds of
lethal kamikaze drones and overseeing plans for the construction of a
new factory in Russia with the capacity to produce thousands of Iranian-
designed drones;
Whereas the Iranian-assisted Russian war of aggression poses a direct threat to
European security and sovereignty;
Whereas the IRGC has targeted dissidents around the world, including throughout
Europe;
Whereas the IRGC Quds Force is responsible for Iranian extraterritorial
operations, and they likely played a key role in Iranian assassinations
in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany, Bulgaria, and
Cyprus in recent years;
Whereas the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Denmark, and Albania have all
either arrested or expelled Iranian Government officials implicated in
terrorist or assassination plots in their respective countries;
Whereas the IRGC engaged in a murder-for-hire plot to target former National
Security Advisor John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
for their efforts targeting the IRGC and killing IRGC-Quds Force
Commander Qasem Soleimani;
Whereas the IRGC was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the
United States in 2019;
Whereas Iran executed British-Iranian national Alireza Akbari and as a result
the United Kingdom is considering designating the IRGC as a terrorist
organization;
Whereas in response to the European Union's consideration of designating the
IRGC a terrorist organization, IRGC Commander Hossein Salami has
threatened European countries;
Whereas the European Parliament in January 2023 voted 598 to 9 in favor of
designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization as part of its annual
foreign and security policy report;
Whereas the European Parliament also in January 2023 voted overwhelmingly in
favor separate Iran-focused resolution that called for designating the
IRGC as a terrorist organization;
Whereas thus far the European Union has only sanctioned individual members and
leaders of the IRGC as terrorists but have not yet designated the IRGC
in its entirety;
Whereas under European Council Common Position of December 27, 2001, on the
application of specific measures to combat terrorism (2001/931/CFSP) (in
this preamble referred to as ``Common Position 931''), the European
Union can designate terrorist organizations if ``a decision has been
taken by a competent authority'' that they are a terrorist organization;
Whereas under Council Common Position 931 on combating terrorism, the European
Union defines ``competent authority'' to include ``a judicial
authority'';
Whereas proposals for terrorist organization designations by the European Union
can come from third-party countries, including the United States; and
Whereas previous Department of Justice investigations and convictions provide
the European Union sufficient proof under Common Position 931: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This resolution may be cited as the ``Encouraging the European
Union to Determine that the European Union Should Sanction the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps Now As a Terrorist Entity Resolution'' or the
``Encouraging the EU to DESIGNATE Resolution''.
SEC. 2. EUROPEAN UNION DESIGNATION OF IRGC AS A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.
The House of Representatives--
(1) urges the European Union to expeditiously designate the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization
under Common Position of December 27, 2001, on the application
of specific measures to combat terrorism (2001/931/CFSP);
(2) encourages the Biden administration make European Union
designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a
terrorist organization a diplomatic priority in engagements
with the European Union; and
(3) welcomes the efforts of the international community to
designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist
organization.
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