Report: Trump administration plans to designate Iran as a terror group

The US government is reportedly planning to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, in an unprecedented step aimed at escalating Washington’s campaign of “maximum pressure”.

The decision, which critics warn could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments abroad, is expected to be announced by the U.S. State Department, perhaps as early as Monday, the officials said. It has been rumored for years.

The Pentagon declined to comment and referred queries to the State Department. The State Department and White House also declined to comment.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a strident Iran hawk, has advocated for the change in U.S. policy as part of the Trump administration’s tough posture toward Tehran.

Experts said it was unclear how much concrete difference the terrorist designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) would make. It is already heavily sanctioned by the US as a terrorist supporter, and Iran is designated a state sponsor of terrorism.

“It is hard to imagine a bigger sanctions stick than that,” said Richard Nephew, a former principal deputy coordinator for sanctions policy at the state department, and the author of The Art of Sanctions.

“Frankly, I still don’t believe that this is consistent with the intent of the underlying law, which was to target non-state actors.”

The announcement would come ahead of the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and to reimpose sanctions that had crippled Iran’s economy.

The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities and people for affiliations with the IRGC, but the organization as a whole is not.