Antonio López-Istúriz White (PPE). – Mr President, gone are the days when some naive politicians in Europe and America thought that they could sit down with the ayatollahs, leave some sanctions, and think that the Iranian regime would no longer pose a threat to us.

Iran is a country that supplies the weapons that Putin’s regime is using daily against the Ukrainian population. It is a regime that sanctions Members of the European Parliament. It is a regime that orders assassinations on European soil against those who dare to denounce them, like our friend and former Vice-President of the Parliament, Alejo Vidal-Quadras.

It is a regime that kills, tortures and oppresses those who bravely decide to participate in peaceful protests. It is a supporter of terrorist organisations in Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Yemen. It is an unreliable, autocratic government that is clearly trying to make a fool of us by continuing to pursue the development of nuclear military technology.

It is time to illegalise the Revolutionary Guard. It is time we change our approach and stay against the threat, together, of the Iranian regime.