The European Union has added Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to its terrorist list in response to Tehran's deadly crackdown on protesters in recent weeks.
The bloc's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said EU foreign ministers took the "decisive step" because "repression cannot go unanswered".
She said ahead of the decision that the move would put the IRGC - a major military, economic and political force in Iran - on the same level as jihadist groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Human rights groups estimate thousands of protesters were killed by security forces, including the IRGC, during weeks of unrest in December and January.
Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot described it as "the most violent repression in Iran's modern history" and said there could be "no impunity for the crimes committed".
