Treasury Department sanctions Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Reuters

Members of the Iranian revolutionary guard march during a parade to commemorate the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), in Tehran September 22, 2011.

“It has hijacked large portions of Iran’s economy and seized massive religious endowments to fund war and terror abroad … I am authorizing the Treasury Department to further sanction the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for its support for terrorism and to apply sanctions to its officials, agents and affiliates,” the president said.

“I urge our allies to join us in taking strong actions to curb Iran’s continued dangerous and destabilizing behavior, including thorough sanctions outside the Iran deal that target the regime’s ballistic missile program in support for terrorism and all of its destructive activities, of which there are many,” Trump added.

Trump and Mnuchin said the Revolutionary Guards have supported Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, as well as terrorist groups Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. The Treasury did not designate the Revolutionary Guards Corps itself a terrorist organization.

The Treasury also sanctioned four entities — three based in Iran and one based in China — that it says provides “support to the IRGC or Iran’s military.”

“We urge the private sector to recognize that the IRGC permeates much of the Iranian economy, and those who transact with IRGC-controlled companies do so at great risk,” Mnuchin said in a statement.

The Trump administration wants to get European allies to sanction the Revolutionary Guards, as well.