The Trump administration is considering designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran’s military, as a foreign terrorist organization, according to a new report.
The move is controversial among senior Cabinet officials, as some caution it could jeopardize U.S. personnel and installations overseas, CNN reports. For example, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats warned that the new label could present challenges to U.S. forces.
Additionally, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke out against dubbing the group as a terrorist organization during a press briefing in October.
“There are particular risks and complexities to designating an entire army, so to speak, of a country where that then puts in place certain requirements … that then triggers certain actions that we think are not appropriate and not necessarily in the best interests of our military,” he said.
Others claim the new designation would mean the White House could then freeze the group’s assets, implement travel bans, and collect criminal penalties.
The decision falls officially under the State Department, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who replaced Tillerson, has backed the new label, sources told CNN.
“There’s lots of things that are being discussed, things that will prove, we believe, very effective at the end goal, which is at the end of the day what matters, right?” Pompeo recently told CNN. “The end goal is to convince the Islamic Republic of Iran to be a normal country.”
The report comes as the Trump administration has sought to exert additional pressure on Tehran, and after the Trump administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, which put restraints on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from crippling sanctions.
Sanctions against Iran affecting the state’s automotive sector and trade for various metals will be implemented starting in August. A new round of sanctions hitting Iran’s energy sector and central bank will also take effect in November.
