Surface-to-surface missiles and a portrait of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are displayed by the Revolutionary Guard in an exhibition on the Iran-Iraq war. Photos / AP file
The United States moved to list Iran's elite military Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organisation as the Trump Administration looks for new ways to increase economic and political pressure on the Islamic regime in Tehran.
The designation marks the first time Washington has branded a foreign government entity a terrorist group and came despite warnings from US military and intelligence officials that other nations could use the designation as a precedent against US action abroad.
The announcement also comes before today's Israeli elections in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term with hawkish promises to battle threatening Iranian behavior across the Middle East.
"This action sends a clear message to Tehran that its support for terrorism has serious consequences," US President Donald Trump said in a statement. "We will continue to increase financial pressure and raise the costs on the Iranian regime for its support of terrorist activity until it abandons its malign and outlaw behaviour."
Iran's foreign minister, Mohammed Javad Zarif, responded on Twitter.
"A(nother) misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu. A(nother) dangerous U.S. misadventure in the region," Zarif wrote in English.
IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari issued an implied threat against US forces in the Middle East.
"With this stupidity, the American army and security forces will no longer have today's calm in the west Asia region," the IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency quoted him as saying.
The Supreme National Security Council of Iran responded by branding "the Government of the United States as a supporter of terrorism and Central Command, also known as Centcom, and all of its affiliated forces, as terrorist groups," state news agency IRNA reported.
The terrorist designation, which takes effect April 16, will allow the Trump Administration to seek criminal penalties against elements of the military agency and foreign officials deemed to be aiding it.
Designating the IRGC, as the sprawling agency is known, a terrorist organisation will also allow Washington to ban travel to the United States for individuals associated with the IRGC.
Trump called the IRGC "the Iranian Government's primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign," and said Iran uses the unit to promote terrorism as official state policy.
The new State Department designation "underscores the fact that Iran's actions are fundamentally different from those of other governments," Trump's statement said.
US officials have long said that the group's opaque structure and far-flung responsibilities provided a mask for terrorist activities that threaten Israelis, Europeans and US forces.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the designation will "deprive the world's leading state sponsor of terror the financial means to spread misery and death."
"The IRGC masquerades as a legitimate military organization, but none of us should be fooled," Pompeo told reporters in making the formal announcement. He said the "blood of 603 American soldiers Iran killed in Iraq" is on the hands of the IRGC.
"With this designation, the Trump Administration is simply recognizing reality," he added. "Our designation makes clear to the world that the IRGC not just supports other terrorist groups but engages in terrorism itself."
The action has been debated for years, including a renewed consideration last year that included warnings from Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and others about the potential for backlash.
US officials said the designation is the next step in what the Trump Administration calls its "maximum pressure campaign" against Iran.
The Administration had previously named the IRGC as a supporter of terrorism conducted by militias it supports, but stopped short of listing it as a foreign terrorist organisation in 2017. In 2018, Trump also withdrew from the international nuclear deal with Iran.
The IRGC is a military unit originally set up as security for Iran's clerical rulers. It has grown to be the country's most powerful security organisation, with nearly unchecked political influence and interests in business, real estate and other areas of the economy. The United States blames the IRGC for facilitating US service member deaths in Iraq and elsewhere, via financing, training and weapons support to terrorist networks.
Brian Hook, the State Department's principal adviser on Iran, called the IRGC an architect and the principal enforcer of Iran's foreign policy, ever since the 1979 revolution. He alternately compared it to the mafia and a death cult.
"I think it's important, in this case today, we're adding an additional layer of sanctions on the IRGC to make radioactive those sectors of Iran's economy that are influenced or controlled by the IRGC," he said.
Thank you, President @realDonaldTrump for your decision to designate the Islamic revolutionary guards as a terrorist organization.
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) April 8, 2019
Once again you are keeping the world safe from Iran aggression and terrorism.
In his statement, Trump said the "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."
The designation is likely to complicate US actions in Iraq, where US troops work to prevent the resurgence of Isis (Islamic State). Shia militias tied to the IRGC operate close by. The IRGC is also tied to Hizbollah in Lebanon, where the political wing of the terror group is part of the government.
Netanyahu, who faces corruption allegations and a tough re-election fight against a former military chief, cast the US move as a sign of his influence with the United States.
"Thank you, my dear friend, President Donald Trump, for having decided to announce Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation," Netanyahu wrote on Twitter in Hebrew. "Thank you for the answer to another important request that serves the interests of our country and the region. We will continue to act together in any way against the Iranian regime that threatens the state of Israel, the United States and the Peace of the world."
In an English version, Netanyahu omitted the reference to his "request" for the US action. The United States is Israel's most important ally, and Netanyahu has told voters his close relationship with Trump has paid off with tough US action against Iran. Trump also last month backed Netanyahu, and appeared to put a thumb on the Israeli election scale, by recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights seized from Syria in 1967.
"Top Pentagon and CIA officials oppose the designation, which they argue would allow hard-line Iranian officials to justify deadly operations against Americans overseas, especially Special Operations units and paramilitary units working under the CIA." https://t.co/9NFyELv4gZ
— Holly Dagres (@hdagres) April 8, 2019
Matt Levitt, a former Treasury Department official who is director of the counterterrorism programme at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the move may have other unintended consequences. Among the possibilities he reeled off: That Russia and China may start designating US agencies for punitive actions, or that Iraq could be caught in a double bind as it purchases electricity from Iran, including from entities tied to the IRGC.
"When you take it all into account, the big question at the end of the day is, what does this tangibly add to our tool kit?" Levitt said. "It does add some things, but I'm not convinced they're all that significant."
Since 1993, the US government has used the foreign terrorist organisation designation more than 60 times. It is a federal crime, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, to provide material support to one.
"Other governments and the private sector will also be on notice about the full scope of the IRGC's malign activities," the State Department said. "The IRGC is integrally woven into the Iranian economy, operating front companies and institutions around the world that engage in both licit and illicit business activity. The profits from what appear to be legitimate business deals could end up unwittingly supporting Iran's terrorist agenda."
The designation puts further distance between Trump's policies toward Iran and those of European allies who remain a part of the nuclear deal.
A senior German security official said the designation is not out of bounds because the IRGC "is an organisation which is committing terroristic acts," but that Europe is unlikely to follow suit because of diplomatic and business ties to Iran.
"In that matter Trump is right," said the official.
"They do interfere severely in the Middle East, and they have also plotted terroristic acts in Europe," the official said.
Representative Michael McCaul, R, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, applauded the decision as a proper escalation after US steps to isolate and punish just the IRGC's Quds Force, a subset of the IRGC, "did not dissuade Iran from using its funding, weapons, and personnel to engage in deadly violence around the world."
"This designation ends the façade that the IRGC is part of a normal military. They behave like a terrorist organisation and will now be treated accordingly," McCaul said in a statement.
The idea has carried some bipartisan support for years. US officials noted that in 2007 then-Senator Barack Obama and then-Senator Hillary Clinton signed onto a bill urging President George W. Bush to make the IRGC designation.
Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, said the designation is welcome.
"It is fitting that the most dangerous terrorist group in the world, responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocents and backed by a massive state apparatus and vast energy wealth, is being designated finally as a foreign terrorist organisation," Dubowitz said.
The conflict has entered its seventh day.