In tit-for-tat, Iran designates Royal Canadian Navy a terrorist organization

The Iranian foreign ministry designated the Royal Canadian Navy a terrorist organization on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for Canada’s 2024 blacklisting of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

In a statement, the ministry said that the move was in reaction to Ottawa declaring the Guards a terror group “contrary to the fundamental principles of international law.”

Iran, “within the framework of reciprocity, identifies and declares the Royal Canadian Navy as a terrorist organization,” the statement added, without specifying what ramifications, if any, the force will face.

The IRGC, a powerful armed militia that controls a business empire as well as elite armed and intelligence forces in Iran, has been accused by Western nations of carrying out a global terrorist campaign. Iran rejects that.

On June 19, 2024, Canada declared the IRGC a terror group. This bars its members from entering the country and Canadians from having any dealings with individual members or the group.

Additionally, any assets the Guards or its members hold in Canada could be seized.

Canada accused the Guards of “having consistently displayed disregard for human rights both inside and outside of Iran, as well as a willingness to destabilize the international rules-based order.”

Opposition legislators had long demanded the IRGC be blacklisted but the Liberal government of then-prime minister Justin Trudeau had previously resisted pressure, saying the move would risk unintended consequences.

Canadian lawmakers stepped up the campaign in April 2024 after Iran fired hundreds of missiles at Israel, and in May of that year Canada’s House of Commons unanimously backed a report that called on the government to declare the IRGC a terror group.

One of the reasons behind Ottawa’s decision to designate the force as a terror group was the Flight PS752 incident.

The flight was shot down shortly after takeoff from Tehran in January 2020, killing all 176 passengers and crew, including 85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

The IRGC admitted its forces downed the jet, but claimed its controllers had mistaken it for a hostile target.

Ottawa broke off diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2012, calling Iran “the most significant threat to global peace.”

Iran’s archenemy, the United States, listed the Guards as a foreign terrorist organization in April 2019. Australia did the same last month, accusing the force of being behind attacks on Australian soil.