The Islamic Republic Kills, Europe Does Nothing

The EU and European nations — purely symbolically — called Iranian ambassadors on January 13 to account for the Islamic Republic’s mass killing of as many as 12,000 unarmed demonstrators, even as protests against the regime continued. On that day, the United Kingdom, European Union — and EU members Germany, Italy, France, and Spain in an individual capacity — summoned the Islamic Republic’s envoys to explain Tehran’s brutal behavior.

Tehran rejects the numbers and claims that the popular movement is contained, but the internet remains shut down and security forces are stepping up patrols. People are coming out despite the threat of bullets now or expedited trials that could end in executions later.

Absent meaningful consequences for the Islamic Republic, summons and tongue lashings have fallen flat, protecting no one and deterring nothing.

Killings in Iran Mirror Assad’s Mass Killings in Syria

Europe’s harsh disapproval also greeted the 2012 Houla massacre, when more than 100 civilians, including many children, were killed in central Syria. They were murdered by a combination of heavy shelling and close-range executions — all attributed to pro-regime forces. France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands expelled Syrian diplomats in weak protest. Over the next 12 years, Bashar al-Assad’s forces killed hundreds of thousands more.

This recent slaughter is not the first time the regime in Tehran has killed innocent protesters, nor is this the first tepid response from Europe. The Zahedan “Bloody Friday” massacre occurred amid the 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, when security forces killed roughly 100 demonstrators, including at least 17 children. In the 2019 Bloody November protests, authorities killed an estimated 1,500 protesters nationwide, including about 150 in the Mahshahr massacre.

Europe’s response to Assad’s early massacres was inadequate, yet the response to Islamic Republic’s killing amounts to even less.

Iran Used EU-Made Weapons and Tech To Repress Protests

During the 2022 protest wave, shotgun cartridges bearing the logo of a French-Italian manufacturer were recovered from streets where security forces fired at demonstrators. Many were killed and hundreds were blinded or partially blinded. The shells had somehow made their way into the country despite EU sanctions imposed in 2011 that were intended to prohibit exporting equipment usable for internal repression.

Islamic Republic authorities used Nokia Siemens Networks surveillance technology in the late 2000s to keep an eye on dissidents. The EU-developed systems were embedded in Iran’s telecom network, enabling security services to monitor emails, phone calls, and online activity. During the 2009 protests that followed the presidential election, the regime used this to identify activists and carry out arrests.

Tehran Hunts Down Iranian Dissidents Across Europe

In 2024, the U.S. Treasury and the United Kingdom jointly sanctioned a network tasked with assassinating Iranian dissidents and opposition activists in the UK at Tehran’s behest. The network, led by Iran-based narcotics trafficker Naji Sharif Zindashti, operated under the guidance of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and carried out assassinations and kidnappings across multiple European countries. The European Union sanctioned eight operatives tied to the same network in July 2025 for transnational repression. Separately, Dutch authorities accused Tehran of attempting to assassinate an Iranian dissident in the Netherlands in 2024, while Metropolitan Police counterterrorism leadership stated in 2023 that police and Britain’s intelligence  agency, MI5, had foiled 15 Iranian plots to kidnap or kill UK-based dissidents.

Washington Should Push EU States To Cut Diplomatic Ties With Tehran

Europe has failed to impose meaningful consequences on Iran for its terror plots across the continent, let alone for what has been done to the Iranian people at home. Washington should press EU member states and the United Kingdom to expel Iranian ambassadors and suspend diplomatic relations, mirroring the steps taken against Assad’s regime during the civil war there. The United States should also push the European Union and the United Kingdom to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization for its role in repression inside Iran and in plotting attacks on European soil.

Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he focuses on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republic’s regional malign influence. For more analysis from the author and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Janatan on X @JanatanSayeh. Follow FDD on X @FDDand @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.