BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union appeared poised Thursday to sanction Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard over Tehran’s deadly crackdown on nationwide protests, further squeezing the Islamic Republic as it worries over a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to potentially launch a military strike against it. EU ‘likely’ to sanction the GuardThe EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, told journalists it was “likely” the sanctions would be put in place. Guard key to crackdownThe Guard was born from Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution as a force meant to protect its Shiite cleric-overseen government and later enshrined in its constitution. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll given that authorities cut off the internet and disrupted calls into the Islamic Republic. That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 Islamic Revolution.