WASHINGTON: The United States (USA) President Donald Trump on Monday designated Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization.
Critics have warned that the move could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments.
The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but not the organization as a whole.
“The IRGC is the Iranian government’s primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign,” Trump said in a statement.
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.
