US President Donald Trump wants to classify the elite unit of the Shiite theocracy as Iran's foreign terrorist organization. He announced this in a message circulated by the White House. This sends a clear message to the Tehran government "that their support for terrorists has serious consequences."
It is the first time that the United States classifies a military unit of another state as a terrorist organization. So far, the State Department list includes the Islamic State (IS), Boko Haram or Hamas.
The measure aims to prevent financial aid for the Garden. US citizens and businesses are prohibited from supporting the organization - for example in the form of money, weapons or training. Members of the unit are also not allowed to enter the US or can be expelled.
Trump called the Revolutionary Guards "the Iranian government's main tool to direct and implement their worldwide terrorist campaign."
More important than the army
The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) are the elite unit of the armed forces in Iran and far more important than the classical army. They were established to keep the regime in power and are directly under the country's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The unit also has great political and economic influence in the country. The Guards are ideologically closer to the hardliners, but the reformers around President Hassan Rohani also respect and value them as security guarantors of the country.
The move further aggravates the US government's course toward Iran, which it considers a "rogue regime." This should lead to new tensions between the two countries. The Revolutionary Guards had already threatened with countermeasures in advance.
For some time there had been speculation that Trump's government could classify the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. Last week, a government official said Washington was considering additional sanctions on Iran. The government hopes to seize them in the coming weeks if the US exit from the international nuclear agreement. In May last year, the country left the agreement. The government in Washington then reinstated sanctions against Iran.
Iran considered putting the US military on its terror list last week should the Americans classify the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization. "If the Revolutionary Guards are placed on America's list of terrorist groups, we will put that country's military on the black terror list," said National Security Committee chief Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh on Twitter.