Iran's Revolutionary Guard troops march in a military parade marking the 36th anniversary of Iraq's 1980 invasion of Iran in front of the shrine of late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, just outside Tehran, on Sept. 21, 2016. | Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo Trump pulls his punch against elite Iranian military group The president says the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps supports terrorism — but won't formally declare the IRGC a terrorist group.

President Donald Trump on Friday accused Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of supporting terrorism.

But in what amounted to a pulled punch, he stopped short of formally branding the notorious military unit a terrorist group.


“The Revolutionary Guard is the Iranian supreme leader’s corrupt personal terror force and militia,” Trump said in an address outlining his wider Iran strategy. “It has hijacked large portions of Iran’s economy and seized massive religious endowments to fund war and terror abroad.”

Despite his charged accusations against the IRGC, a religiously oriented entity formed after Iran’s 1978-79 Islamic revolution, Trump did not legally designate the group a "foreign terrorist organization," a move that could have heavy political and legal consequences.

Instead, he imposed new terrorism-related sanctions on the IRGC and its affiliates that several Iran analysts predicted would have a minimal impact on Tehran’s aggressive foreign policy.

The move appeared to be a compromise between Trump’s desire to crack down on perceived Islamist threats and the tricky nature of singling out an arm of a foreign government, even a hostile one, for punishment.

The IRGC — which numbers about 125,000 strong and exercises major power over Iran’s economy and political system —makes for a convenient boogeyman for Trump as he seeks to demonize Iran.

It has a long history of support for terrorist groups including Hezbollah, and U.S. commanders blame its elite Quds Force for the deaths of dozens of American troops in Iraq during the 2000s. Trump also noted in his speech one of the group’s units was suspected in a 2011 plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s then-ambassador to the U.S. by bombing Washington, D.C.’s upscale Café Milano restaurant.

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President Barack Obama argued that the best way to weaken the IRGC’s grip on Iran’s society, economy and foreign policy was to empower the country’s moderate reformers — a key goal of the 2015 nuclear deal he clinched with Tehran. Trump appears determined to go after the IRGC more directly.

But the president may have been deterred from declaring the group a terrorist organization — a legal designation applied by the State Department to groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda — because Iranian leaders have suggested it could trigger retaliation against U.S. troops, either directly or through proxies. Iran has fighters or proxies in Iraq, Syria and other countries where the U.S. has a presence.

Pentagon officials have warned that the designation could vastly complicate any interactions they might have with the group, with which the U.S. occasionally indirectly coordinates in areas where the Islamic State is a common foe.

“Iran's economy, military, and foreign policy are all tightly intertwined with IRGC interests and activities, so if the IRGC is labeled a terrorist organization, then the Islamic Republic will become — by extension — one, too,” said Afshon Ostovar, author of “Vanguard of the Imam,” a history of the IRGC. “Escalation with Iran at this point in time, when fires continue to burn in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, would only further complicate U.S. policy and operations in the Middle East.”

In his response to Trump’s speech, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani defended the IRGC, according to state-backed Iranian media, saying the group is “a powerful force, and the people are always standing by the IRGC."

Multiple sanctions analysts told POLITICO that because past presidents had already sanctioned the IRGC for reasons other than terrorism — such as for nuclear proliferation or human rights abuses — any new penalties imposed on the group or its affiliates are essentially redundant.

“The goal is to send a signal and call them out on their bad behavior, but is this a dramatic expansion of sanctions on Iran? Absolutely not,” said David Mortlock, a National Security Council staffer under President Barack Obama.

Others interpreted Trump’s move as having a major effect. “This finally makes it impossible for virtually all multinational corporations to operate in Iran, since IRGC dominates the Iranian economy,” declared Ali Khedery, a former official at the departments of State and Defense who served under Obama and former President George W. Bush, on Twitter.

Trump was required to impose new sanctions on the IRGC as a whole by a law Congress passed in the summer. But he could have gone a step further, pleasing Iran hawks who have long called for formally branding the IRGC a terrorist outfit. Still, even some of those hawks said Trump’s actions Friday, which triggered Treasury Department sanctions, were tantamount to formally declaring it a terrorist group.

“I don’t think there is much of a difference between FTO and the designation that the president did. So, it is an important step,” said Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Whether Trump’s action was tough or a compromise, few doubt that Iran will be enraged.

“I would expect that very soon you’ll see the Iranians, probably the Parliament, is going to enact legislation saying the U.S. military is a terrorist group,” said Tyler Cullis, a sanctions expert who has pushed for more engagement with Iran. Cullis noted that could prove dangerous were a U.S. soldier to fall into Iranian hands.

The IRGC was founded after Iran’s revolution at the behest of Islamist leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The group originally was supposed to protect Iran’s clerical rulers and safeguard its Islamist ideology. But over the years, it has developed into a complicated entity with reach into practically every part of Iranian life, especially its economy, where it has roles in everything from the black market to laser eye surgery.

The IRGC supports a range of militias, political leaders and designated terrorist groups throughout the Middle East, including ones hostile to the United States such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. At the same time, the IRGC advises Shiite militias in Iraq that have fought the Islamic State terrorist group, putting it in sync with U.S. aims to destroy the Sunni jihadist network.

Presidents from both political parties have struggled on how best to approach Iran, whose government has both theocratic and democratic elements, and where more moderate, reformist forces constantly vie for power with hard-liners. The country’s top authority is the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ronald Reagan’s administration designated Iran a state sponsor of terrorism in 1984. But President Bill Clinton tried to cultivate better relations with the country when a reformist candidate, Mohammad Khatami, won Iran's presidency in the late 1990s.

In more recent years, Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been at the forefront of U.S. concerns. Under Obama, the U.S. pursued both tougher sanctions against Iran, including elements of the IRGC, while pushing for talks with Tehran to rein in its nuclear program. The resulting 2015 nuclear deal gave Iran significant, but nowhere near total, sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Trump has characterized the deal as a weak, flawed agreement that gives Iran — and the IRGC — an economic lift as they bide their time before resuming a nuclear program. His decision Friday to decertify the internationally negotiated agreement to Congress is a blow that could ultimately lead to its collapse.

Obama and his aides’ theory of the case was that by putting the nuclear program on hold and easing some sanctions, moderate political forces in Iran could gain strength over time. Some Obama administration officials argue that because the IRGC remains under so many sanctions, private sector forces in Iran could, over time, wrest control over more of the economy and ultimately decrease the IRGC’s influence.

“I don’t think an FTO designation is going to be the thing that wrecks the IRGC. The thing that would wreck them is to reform the heck out of the economy so they don’t have a role. That’s how you damage the IRGC,” said Richard Nephew, a former State Department official deeply involved in sanctions policy.

But critics of the Obama approach point out that the IRGC has thrived despite years of heavy U.S. sanctions. And although Trump on Friday appealed to the Iranian government’s “longest-suffering victims: its own people,” some worry his aggressive tone could deepen popular support for the country’s military hard-liners.

“The way the Trump administration is moving forward is just so hostile to all aspects of Iran that it’s unlikely to produce any traction with the Iranian people or to encourage divisions within the system,” said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran analyst with the Brookings Institution.