Former Trump campaign manager and top adviser Stephen Bannon has long said that he wants to blow up the U.S. government from within. Now that Donald Trump is in power, people wonder if POTUS has been following Bannon’s playbook. The president just dropped a live grenade into the hornet’s nest of Iran.
Trump proclaimed the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp), Iran’s top security arm, a terrorist group. He did it based upon the recommendation of his good friend and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S. called the group out for facilitating the deaths of U.S. members of the military in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries.
POTUS released a statement explaining his action, The Washington Post reported:
‘This action sends a clear message to Tehran that its support for terrorism has serious consequences. We will continue to increase financial pressure and raise the costs on the Iranian regime for its support of terrorist activity until it abandons its malign and outlaw behavior.’
Netanyahu tweeted:
‘Thank you, my dear friend, President Donald Trump, for having decided to announce Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. Thank you for the answer to another important request that serves the interests of our country and the region. We will continue to act together in any way against the Iranian regime that threatens the state of Israel, the United States and the Peace of the world.’
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted back:
‘A(nother) misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu. A(nother) dangerous U.S. misadventure in the region.’
IRGC Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari released a strong statement to the IRGC-related Fars News Agency (FNA):
‘With this stupidity, the American army and security forces will no longer have today’s calm in the west Asia region.’
The Iranian Supreme National Security Council turned on the U.S. and labeled them:
‘(T)he government of the United States as a supporter of terrorism and Central Command, also known as Centcom, and all of its affiliated forces, as terrorist groups.’
Trump branded the group and said it promoted terrorism:
‘(T)he Iranian government’s primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign.’
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noted:
‘(This will) deprive the world’s leading state sponsor of terror the financial means to spread misery and death. he IRGC masquerades as a legitimate military organization, but none of us should be fooled. (And the) blood of 603 American soldiers Iran killed in Iraq (is on the IRGC). With this designation, the Trump administration is simply recognizing reality. Our designation makes clear to the world that the IRGC not just supports other terrorist groups but engages in terrorism itself.’
Pompeo went on, telling Fox News that Trump’s announcement had nothing to do with the Israeli elections:
‘It happened today because today was the day we were ready to make the announcement.’
Former Treasury Department official and counterterrorism program director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Matt Levitt, said:
‘When you take it all into account, the big question at the end of the day is, what does this tangibly add to our tool kit? It does add some things, but I’m not convinced they’re all that significant.’
Chief Executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Mark Dubowitz said:
‘It is fitting that the most dangerous terrorist group in the world, responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocents and backed by a massive state apparatus and vast energy wealth, is being designated finally as a foreign terrorist organization.’
The State Department’s top adviser on Iran, Brian Hook, compared the IRGC to the mafia and a death cult:
‘I think it’s important, in this case today, we’re adding an additional layer of sanctions on the IRGC to make radioactive those sectors of Iran’s economy that are influenced or controlled by the IRGC.’
