EU Sanctions Tehran’s Transnational Repression Network

Tehran’s global terror apparatus has triggered an important European response. On July 15, the European Union (EU) Council designated the network of narco-trafficker Naji Ibrahim Sharifi Zindashti and operatives from Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOI) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for acts of “transnational repression.” Per the EU, the now-sanctioned band has targeted, on behalf of the Islamic Republic, “dissidents and human rights defenders across the world, including on EU territory.”

The United States and the United Kingdom previously designated Zindashti’s network as part of a joint action in 2024 for its ties to MOI and for serving as the long arm of Iran-backed terror abroad. The EU decision therefore brings the 27-member body further in concert with a trans-Atlantic web of sanctions against Tehran-backed terror entities.

Zindashti Leads MOI’s Transnational Repression Efforts

In 2021, Zindashti’s network enlisted Canadian members of the Hells Angels biker gang to help carry out assassinations against defectors from Iran inside the United States — a plot for which the U.S. Justice Department issued charges against MOI operatives in January 2024. That same year, Treasury designated four MOI agents involved in plotting the kidnappings of U.S. citizens and Iranian dissidents residing in the United States.

Between 2017 and 2020, Zindashti’s network carried out a series of MOI-directed operations in Turkey, including the assassinations of British-Iranian media figure Saeed Karimian and former regime insider Masoud Molavi Vardanjani as well as the abduction of Arab separatist and Swedish-Iran dual-national Habib Chaab, who was later executed in Iran.

The MOI and IRGC’s History of Terror Plots in Europe

In October 2024, the European Parliament sounded the alarm over Tehran’s expanding footprint in Europe, stating, “The Iranian regime’s use of criminal networks as terrorist proxies in Europe poses a grave threat to our internal security.”

The UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee labeled the Islamic Republic a major security threat on July 10 this year, citing MOI- and IRGC-led plots, including at least 15 attempted murders or kidnappings of British citizens or residents between January 2022 and August 2023.

Finland’s intelligence service assessed on May 30 that Iran is conducting espionage to “silence critics of the regime,” while Swedish intelligence made a similar announcement in March, reporting Tehran’s growing use of organized crime to target dissidents and Israeli interests. That same month, the U.S. Treasury designated the Swedish Foxtrot Network as a transnational criminal organization for carrying out “attacks on Israelis and Jews in Europe” at MOI’s behest.

French authorities in 2024 charged two suspects linked to an Iranian-directed plot to attack Israelis and Jews across Paris, Munich, and Berlin. In Germany, the IRGC recruited a dual German-Iranian national and Hells Angels member to carry out an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in Düsseldorf in 2022.

MOI’s Operations Merit FTO Designation

Washington designated MOI as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity in 2012 for its support to Hamas and al-Qaeda, as well as its role in enabling human rights abuses by the Assad regime in Syria. In 2019, the European Union Council added the MOI’s Directorate for Internal Security to its terrorist list, citing “foiled attacks on European soil.” Given its longstanding involvement in terrorism, MOI warrants designation in its entirety on both sides of the Atlantic and especially as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department. Such a step would complement the current architecture of designations against it while broadening the legal consequences for those providing it material support.

Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where Behnam Ben Taleblu is senior director of the Iran Program and a senior fellow. For more analysis from the authors and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Janatan and Behnam on X @JanatanSayeh and @therealBehnamBT. Follow FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.