The Revolutionary Guards Are Ready to Strike Back
The Revolutionary Guards Are Ready to Strike Back
The Trump administration has labeled Iran’s most powerful military branch a terrorist organization—and put Americans around the world in danger.
On Monday, in an unprecedented move, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization. The decision wasn’t entirely unjustified: The IRGC creates, trains, funds, arms, and deploys forces with thousands of fighters beyond Iran’s borders. These include local insurgents but also terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah. IRGC-backed forces are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. service members.
The Trump administration’s decision was meant to serve U.S. interests by isolating Iran. It seems not to have considered, however, the many ways that the regime can retaliate.
Official statements by the Iranian government already yield clues that Tehran is preparing to interpret the designation as an attack and to respond accordingly. Mere hours after the U.S. announcement, Tehran responded by similarly designating U.S. Central Command—the combatant command responsible for theaters across the Middle East, South Asia, and the Horn of Africa—as a terrorist organization. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the IRGC’s commander in chief, said the U.S. Army in the region would “not enjoy today’s peace.” The implication was clear: The Guards would begin to target U.S. military personnel.
This would not be a new posture for Iran. It is well-known that Iran supplied the materials for explosively formed penetrators, an armor-piercing form of improvised explosive device favored by Iraqi Shiite militias during battles against U.S. troops at the height of the conflict in Iraq, between 2006 and 2010. The United States holds Iran responsible for the deaths of more than 600 American soldiers in Iraq.
If Iran now seeks to respond to the designation by escalating tensions against the U.S. military, it has several options.
Iran Briefing | News Press Focus on Human Rights Violation by IRGC, Iran Human Rights