WASHINGTON, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 8, 2017 – The Trump administration is considering executive actions that would designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and the Muslim Brotherhood, an influential movement across the Middle East, as terrorist organizations, people familiar with the discussions said.
A decision to target either of the two groups would mark a significant expansion of U.S. sanctions against Islamist organizations in the Middle East. They would join al Qaeda, Islamic State and dozens of other militant organizations currently on the U.S. terrorism list.
The White House is likely to move more quickly on the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which could be less of a challenge to implement, one person familiar with the discussions said. It was unclear when a decision would be made on either designation.
The IRGC is Iran’s elite military unit and reports directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with a command separate from Iran’s traditional military. It was established following the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran and over the past decade has also grown to dominate Iran’s economy, with holdings in property, oil and gas and telecommunications. The Revolutionary Guard controls as much as 50% of Iran’s economy, the U.S. Treasury estimated.
Either designation likely would come under an executive order signed by then-President George W. Bush in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Trump administration last week imposed new sanctions on more than two dozen Iranian individuals and entities in retaliation for the country’s latest ballistic missile test launch, in January.
Taking the step of designating the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization would give the U.S. further latitude to target the IRGC’s finances and companies, which would affect large sectors of Iran’s economy.
There is broad bipartisan support in Congress for legislation imposing new sanctions on Iran, include separate measures that would require the administration to designate the IRGC and Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations.
The sanctions last week targeted officers and business executives tied the IRGC for their suspected role in aiding the Lebanese militia, Hezbollah, and Tehran’s defense industries.