U.S. Designates Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a Terror Organization by Rebecca Ballhaus and Jessica Donati – Wall Street Journal
The Trump administration escalated a pressure campaign against Iran on Monday by designating the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, the first time an element of a foreign state has been officially named a terrorist entity.
“This action will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime,” President Trump said in a statement Monday. “If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism.”
The designation aims to squeeze the IRGC’s financial resources and shrink its military presence in the Middle East, helping the U.S. crack down on businesses in Europe and elsewhere controlled by the organization.
The designation also allows the U.S. to subject IRGC officials and those who provide support to the organization to travel restrictions and lets U.S. prosecutors bring charges against those who provide “material support” to the IRGC.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a U.S. goal is to increase pressure on Iran to meet the 12 demands the U.S. listed in May last year, when the president said the U.S. would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal…