President Trump has officially designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, marking the first time that the United States has used the designation for a foreign military. “This unprecedented step, led by the Department of State, recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a State Sponsor of Terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a form of statecraft,” the White House said in a statement. “The IRGC is the Iranian government’s primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign [...] If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism.” 

Rumors of the FTO designation were first reported Friday by The Wall Street Journal. Iranian officials fired back at the expected announcement over the weekend, slamming the “stupid” U.S. for escalating tensions and threatening to designate U.S. forces as terrorists in retaliation. Commander of the IRGC Mohammad Ali Jafari said Sunday that “If reports prove to be true that the stupid US administration intends to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organisation (sic), then the IRGC will also specify the US army as a group like ISIL in all parts of the world, specially (sic) the Middle-East.”