Deputy Director of the NCRI'S US Office Examines the IRGC's FTO Designation

Alireza Jafarzadeh of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) penned an op-ed in the Washington Examiner on Sunday, April 21. Entitled ‘Iran’s guard gets a long-overdue but much-deserved terrorist designation’, the piece examines the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and analyses the recent designation of the group as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the US State Department.

Jafarzadeh began by welcoming the designation. “This is a major step towards effectively countering Tehran’s systemic use of terrorism as a tool of statecraft,” he said.

The IRGC Meets the State Department's Criteria
In order for an entity to be eligible for inclusion in the US government’s terror blacklist, it must meet the State Department’s criteria:

It must be a foreign organization.
It must engage in acts of terrorism or retain the capability and intent to engage in acts of terror.
It must threaten American nationals or the national security of the United States.
Jafarzedah states that IRGC adequately meets these three criteria. “It is the core apparatus of repression, the primary driver of war and export of terrorism, and it runs Iran’s nuclear weapons and missile projects,” he writes.

The Move was Welcomed by the Iranian Opposition
Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK Iran) and the leader of the opposition, President-elect Maryam Rajavi, have long called for the IRGC’s inclusion on the US terror blacklist. Following the announcement, Mrs. Rajavi issued a statement praising the US’s response to a “long-standing and righteous demand of the Iranian Resistance.”

She called the designation an “urgent and necessary step to end war and terrorism throughout the region and the world.”