U.S. leaders know that any attempt to thwart Tehran's ambitions must start by restricting the movements of its most powerful military branch, the IRGC.
Editor's Note: The United States is once again considering designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization. This would not be the first time that it has considered slapping such a label on the Iranian military branch. As Stratfor wrote in 2017, the functional effects on the IRGC of being designated as a foreign terrorist organization would be limited. But this time, the United States is also considering adding sanctions against some Iranian-trained militias operating in Iraq. Because many of the consequences and limits of targeting the IRGC are the same today as they were then, we are updating this analysis that originally published on Oct. 15, 2017, with the addition of three key areas that have evolved since then.
