U.S. To Declare Iranian Revolutionary Guards As Terrorists

U.S. To Declare Iranian Revolutionary Guards As Terrorists

Will Impose Drastic New Sanctions On Iran

The Washington Post is reporting that the Bush adminsitration is expected to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization and will move to slap new and drastic sanctions against Iran. The measures are scheduled to be announced Thursday at a joint press conference conducted by US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson.

It will be the first time that the United States has tried to isolate or punish another nation's military. It will also include the broadest package of sanctions imposed on Iran since the 1979 takeover by Islamic radicals.

The new sanctions will empower the United States to financially isolate a large part of Iran's military and anyone inside or outside Iran who does business with it, U.S. officials said. The measures could affect hundreds of foreign companies by squeezing them to drop Iranian business or risk U.S. sanctions.

The Revolutionary Guard Corps, which numbers at least 125,000, is the most powerful wing of Iran's military. It controls a growing sector of the economy, including construction companies, aspects of the oil industry, pharmaceutical plants, telecommunications and ordinary commerce. U.S. officials said it also operates the front companies that procure nuclear technology.

The administration will designate the entire Revolutionary Guard under Executive Order 13382, signed by President Bush in June 2005, which allows the United States to freeze the assets of any proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and its supporters. Iran is being designated for its ballistic missile program. The United States will announce a list of Iranians involved in that program -- civilians as well as military officials -- who will also be designated, U.S. officials said.

Under the same executive order, the administration also intends to designate Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, which controls Iran's defense industries, as well as companies owned or controlled by the Revolutionary Guard, U.S. officials said.

The overall impact, according to U.S. officials, will be to make a pariah of the most critical parts of Iran's military and its defense and commercial industries.

The Quds Force, the foreign operations branch of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, will be designated separately as a supporter of terrorism under Executive Order 13224, which Bush signed two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to obstruct terrorist funding, U.S. officials said. It authorizes the United States to identify individuals, businesses, charities and extremist groups engaged in terrorism.

The Quds Force -- "Quds" is Arabic for Jerusalem -- is estimated to number up to 15,000 and runs Tehran's covert activities throughout the Middle East, including arms, aid and training for groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. U.S. officials say that it has provided the high-tech bombs capable of penetrating armored vehicles and the roadside explosives that are the No. 1 killer of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Geo-political analysts believe that this step is the next step in a preliminary process that will lead to war with Iran beginning with air strikes against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's facilities inside Iran.