The United States on 15 Apr 2019 Monday officially designated Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization, according to a notice published in the U.S. Federal Register.
On the notice wrote, “I hereby designate the aforementioned organization and its aliases as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to section 219 of the INA.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said last week he would make the symbolic but unprecedented move, which immediately was condemned by Iran and created concerns about reprisal attacks on U.S. forces.
It’s the first time the U.S. has declared an element of a foreign government to be a terrorist organization, the Trump administration says. The Revolutionary Guard now joins ISIS, Boko Haram and other groups on the U.S. list of terrorist groups.
The IRGC is in charge of Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs. It also is involved with the country’s banking and shipping industries.
The new designation makes it easier to prosecute companies or people in the European Union that do business with Iran.
U.S. law already punishes U.S. persons who deal with the IRGC with up to 20 years in prison because of the group’s designation under the U.S. Specially Designated Global Terrorist list, a different U.S. sanctions program.
