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The United States is considering blacklisting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. The Bush administration has said it is not yet certain whether the designation will apply to the entire IRGC or just to part of it. If such a label is imposed, it will be the first time the U.S. State Department has designated part of a nation’s military as a terrorist group.
On one level, this is the kind of thing only diplomats take seriously. First, Iran as a whole already has been designated as part of the “Axis of Evil.” Is being a terrorist beyond evil? Second, the purpose of this designation is to impose sanctions against an organization. In this case, the organization is part of a country that already has sanctions against it. The problem is that major powers are paying little attention to these sanctions. The Russians and Chinese certainly show no signs of being prepared to increase pressure on Iran, and there are plenty of European countries — not to mention individual companies — prepared to do business there regardless of sanctions.
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