Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday moved to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a wing of the Iranian military, as a foreign terrorist organization.
“This action will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime. It makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC. If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism,” Trump said in a statement.
The designation is significant, and controversial, as it’s the first time that the U.S. has officially identified a branch of a foreign state as a terrorist organization.
President Trump has consistently taken an aggressive posture toward Iran and Monday’s announcement is just the latest iteration of that approach.
“The Trump administration is simply recognizing a basic reality,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “The IRGC masquerades as a legitimate military organization, but none of us should be fooled. It regularly violates the laws of armed conflict and plans, organizes, and executes terror campaigns all around the world.”
Last year, Trump unilaterally pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal that had been negotiated by the Obama administration that had been agreed to by seven nations and imposed sanctions against Tehran.
The military branch is already designated as a terrorist entity under the U.S. Treasury Department — a move that President Trump made in October 2018. Designating the IRGC as a State Department foreign terrorist organization’s list does not impose additional economic penalties, but it makes it a crime to do business with the IRGC or its leadership.
The move comes on the eve of Israel’s parliamentary election and was seen by some as an attempt to help Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his bid to retain power.
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