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Politics

U.S.: Iran corps is 'global terrorist'

By WASHINGTON POST
Published August 15, 2007

WASHINGTON - The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances.

The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials describe as the group's growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and its support for extremists throughout the Middle East. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran and U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran's nuclear program, officials said.

The designation of the Revolutionary Guards will be made under Executive Order 13224, which President Bush signed two weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, to obstruct terrorist funding. It identifies individuals, businesses, charities and many extremist groups engaged in terrorist activities.

The goal of the new designation is to clamp down on the Revolutionary Guards' vast business network and foreign companies conducting business linked to the military unit and its personnel.

Formed after 1979 and originally tasked with protecting the world's only modern theocracy, the Guards took the lead in battling Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988. The Guards have since become a powerful political and economic force in Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rose through the ranks of the Revolutionary Guards and came to power with support from its network of veterans. Its leaders are tied to many mainstream businesses in Iran.

[Last modified August 15, 2007, 01:47:54]