Iranian guards labeled terrorists
Trump designates the powerful military corps as an official threat
President Donald Trump said Monday that he was designating a powerful arm of the Iranian military as a foreign terrorist organization, the first time the United States has named part of another nation’s government an official threat.
The designation imposes wide-ranging economic and travel sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as well as organizations, companies and individuals with ties to it. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards carry out operations across the Middle East, train Arab Shiite militias and oversee businesses in Iran.
Monday’s designation “will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime,” Trump said in a statement.
The designation, which was opposed by some top Trump administration national security officials who said it could incite retaliation by Tehran against U.S. troops and intelligence officers, takes effect next Monday. But it was announced Monday in what U.S. officials described as a chaotic and rushed process.
In Baghdad, where some Iraqi officials have close ties to Iran, U.S. officials said they had been given no guidance on how to enforce the policy.
The timing of Trump’s announcement appeared aimed at giving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel a final boost in a tight re-election campaign before a vote Tuesday. Netanyahu and Trump administration officials have said Iran is the greatest threat to Israel, and Netanyahu immediately thanked Trump in a tweet.
Netanyahu has repeatedly raised the specter of the Iranian threat to Israel and tried to reinforce the notion that his close ties to Trump strengthen Israeli security.
Last month, in an effort to bolster Netanyahu, Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights; the United Nations considers it occupied territory.
Top U.S. intelligence and military officials, including Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, opposed Trump’s action on Iran, which they argued would allow Iranian leaders to justify operations against Americans overseas, especially Special Operations units and paramilitary units working under the CIA.
But Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, pushed for it, a Trump administration official said. The final decision belonged to Pompeo.