Iran army says it stands with Revolutionary Guards after EU move

An Iranian lawmaker warned on Friday that Iran could target US interests beyond American military bases, responding to the presence of US naval forces in the region.

“If the United States and Donald Trump are worried about the lives of their soldiers, they should withdraw their forces from the region,” said Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for parliament’s national security commission, according to state media.

Rezaei said Iran’s objectives were “not limited to US bases” and that “all US interests are within range,” adding that Iran’s armed forces had the ability to target American interests, assets and troops.

President Tayyip Erdogan told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday that Turkey was ready to play a facilitator role between Iran and the US to help ease tensions, the Turkish presidency said.

“President Erdogan emphasised that Turkey was ready to take up a facilitator role between Iran and the United States to ease tensions and resolve issues,” the presidency said in a statement on X.

It added that Erdogan would also receive Iran’s foreign minister during his visit to Turkey for talks with his Turkish counterpart.

A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader warned on Friday that Tehran would take immediate countermeasures after the European Union designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

Ali Shamkhani said in an X post that the West was misusing the concept of terrorism, accusing the US and Europe of double standards.

“The West doesn’t define terrorism, it uses it,” Shamkhani wrote, adding that labeling the Guards while backing what he described as violence elsewhere showed how the concept had been distorted. “Countermeasures will be immediate,” he said.

Iran’s parliamentary education commission said some students under 18 were detained during recent protests and that police have yet to respond to questions about arrests and casualties among schoolchildren.

Alireza Monadi Sefidan, head of the commission, said it sent a letter to the national police asking whether any students were among those detained and seeking information on students killed or injured, according to the ILNA news agency.

“We have not yet received a response to this letter,” Monadi said, adding that the request was sent through parliament’s security office.

The commission’s deputy head, Farshad Ebrahimipour Noorabadi, said it was clear that “there are some students under 18 among those detained,” and that the education ministry should step in to address their cases.

Ebrahimipour said people under 18 are subject to specific legal procedures and that the aim was for them to return to their families as soon as possible.

Iran is reviewing possible steps in response to a European Union move to label the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.

The source said four measures were being discussed and drafted for possible government action.

One proposal would shift protection of European diplomatic missions in Iran from the national police to the Revolutionary Guards, the source said.

Another would involve special inspections of commercial ships heading to European destinations by the Guards’ naval force, according to the report.

The source said authorities were also reviewing the collective expulsion of European military attachés from Tehran.

A fourth proposal would remove special airport protocols for European diplomats and subject them to inspections “like ordinary people,” the source said.