© Morteza Nikoubazl/ReutersThe U.S. has designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group. Here, members of the force march during a 2007 military parade in Tehran.
Comment: The following development does not bode well for the Middle East and reeks of the neocon-inspired rhetoric that brought us Saddam's WMDs...
The Trump administration is designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, taking an unprecedented step as it seems to increase pressure on Iran's regime. The move seems certain to bring a new level of tension between the two countries, as Iran's leaders have said they will retaliate in kind.
Iranian lawmakers have prepared legislation that would label the U.S. military as a terrorist group, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency.
President Trump announced the designation Monday morning, in a shift from the decades in which the U.S. has viewed Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.
"This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," Trump said, in a White House statement. "The IRGC is the Iranian government's primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign."
With the designation, anyone who deals with the IRGC could run the risk of facing criminal charges, such as aiding or supporting a terrorist group.
"If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism," Trump said.
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.
Laying out the administration's reasoning for the designation, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listed a string of attacks and violent plots, which he said gave "ample justification for today's decision."
Among the cases cited by Pompeo were two that directly involved the U.S.: the 1996 Khobar Towers apartment complex bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 American service members and wounded dozens more; and a 2011 case in which the Obama administration said it had foiled a Quds Force plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. in a bombing in Washington, D.C.
Comment: Neither of which are really in the style of Iranian geopolitics.
Today, the White House sees the IRGC as an "active and enthusiastic participant in acts of terror," a senior administration official said in a background briefing held shortly before Pompeo discussed the announcement Monday morning.
Accusing Iran of using the IRGC to try to reshape the Middle East in its favor, another official said the group has amassed too much power and money - which he said it then uses to support attacks on Americans and U.S. assets.
"The Middle East cannot be more stable and peaceful without a weakened IRGC," the official said.
In recent months, the Trump administration has sought to impose "maximum pressure" on Iran's regime, after abandoning the nuclear deal brokered during the Obama administration. Even before news emerged of a possible terrorism designation for the Revolutionary Guard, more than 970 Iranian entities and individuals were already under U.S. sanctions.
But the administration is now taking the rare step of designating another country's military force as a terrorist group.
"In the past, part of the Guard Corps, known as the Quds Force, has been targeted by Washington," NPR's Peter Kenyon reports. "Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that President Trump 'should know better than to be conned into another U.S. disaster.' "
Comment: How right he is! But what difference does that make when Trump is completely surrounded by maniacs and has his milder policies subverted or refuted by said maniacs.
Zarif and other Iranian officials sharply criticized the U.S. plan over the weekend, after news emerged that an official U.S. announcement against the Revolutionary Guard was imminent.
Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned that if the U.S. labels his force as a terrorist group, the result would mean the IRGC could target the U.S. military the same way it currently targets ISIS.
"If (the Americans) make such a stupid move, the U.S. Army and American security forces stationed in West Asia [Middle East] will lose their current status of ease and serenity," Jafari said, according to the semi-official FARS News Agency.
"I do not think that the Americans will be that much out of their mind to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization," Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said, according to FARS.
Comment: Good on Iran for giving as good as they're getting - and who could blame them?! They went even further and said:
After Washington put Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on its terrorists list, the Iranian Foreign Ministry asked President Hassan Rouhani to designate the US Central Command (CENTCOM) as a terrorist organization.
Due to the "clear support" US forces in Western Asia lend to terrorist groups, and their own "involvement in terrorist activities," the US military in the region should be put on a list of terrorist groups in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a letter sent to Rouhani and Iran's Supreme National Security Council by the ministry.
There has been no official response to Zarif's suggestion so far. However, earlier, the Iranian lawmakers threatened to designate some parts of the US military as a terrorist group in response to measures taken by Washington.
Some top Iranian officials also suggested putting entire US Army on the terrorist list altogether.
[...]
Iran's top judge, Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi, also lambasted Washington's decision accusing it of supporting extremists. "A country, which has no other track records but arming, supporting and harboring terrorist groups, considers an official armed force of another country ... a terrorist [organization]," he said, as cited by the Iranian Press TV.
Raeisi also said that the US move is likely to have no effect both in legal and political terms "in the eyes" of other nations.
The U.S. designation of the IRGC comes one day before Israel holds a national vote on the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Responding to news of the pending announcement, Zarif said Trump is granting a long-held request from Netanyahu.
Comment: Trump's debt to Israel (for helping to finance his presidential campaign) is no small thing - which is likely part of the reason he's doing such stupid things in support of Israel's aggression towards Iran - and this timely assistance to Netanyahu as he seeks re-election:
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed the US decision to label Iran's Revolutionary Guards a "terrorist organization" for allegedly financing and promoting terrorism in the region.
The US move was announced in a statement from President Donald Trump on Monday, stating that it "recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft."
Netanyahu took to Twitter to thank his "dear friend" Trump for answering "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," the Israeli leader posted.
Israel's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Yisrael Katz also took to Twitter to praise Trump for the IRGC designation, saying it would "strengthen Israel's ability to fight Iranian aggression in Syria and space." He claimed the move would weaken Iran's ability to promote a nuclear program and its support for terrorism.
Netanyahu and Trump share a common interest in pursuing Iran, which they see as a threat to their interests. The US decision to label IRGC as a terrorist organization is the latest in a series of American moves welcomed by Netanyahu, following the US decision to recognize the occupied Golan Heights in Syria as Israeli territory last month, and its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, opening an embassy there last year.
With Israel's election to take place on Tuesday, Netanyahu is likely grateful for the latest public show of US support for his government. The PM has touted his close ties to the US president throughout his election campaign, while Trump has offered vocal support for his Israeli ally.
The US move was announced in a statement from President Donald Trump on Monday, stating that it "recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft."
Netanyahu took to Twitter to thank his "dear friend" Trump for answering "another important request that serves the interests of our country and the region."
When asked about the timing of the designation on Monday, senior administration officials said it had been in the works for months. They also said that in the past, there has been bipartisan U.S. support for declaring the IRGC a terrorist group.
The administration laid out some of its evidence for the move last week, when the State Department's Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran, blamed Iran for the deaths of hundreds of American service personnel in Iraq.
"Iran is responsible for the deaths of at least 608 American service members" in Iraq, Hook said, citing U.S. military reports.
Comment: Yeah, and Iran is responsible for 911 too!
When he announced that figure, Hook did not give many details about those deaths; on Monday, he said the U.S. personnel had been killed by improvised explosive devices that Iran supplied to militias in Iraq.
"This accounts for 17 percent of all deaths of U.S. personnel in Iraq from 2003 to 2011," Hook said. "This death toll is in addition to the many thousands of Iraqis killed by the IRGC's proxies."
Hook also accused Iran of causing widespread problems, saying it supports the Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian groups such as Hamas, and backs the Houthi military insurgency in Yemen - where Iran has been engaged in a proxy war with Saudi Arabia.
NPR's Michele Kelemen contributed to this report.
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