IRGC members
The US Department of Treasury is going to impose more sanctions on the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox News on Sunday.
Accordign to the statement, Mnuchin had already discussed this issue with representatives of other countries at the latest meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
“I’ve had very direct conversations with my counterparts about what we’re trying to do with Iran,” he said. “We’re going to be working with them on that.”
The new sanctions will further fuel tensions between the US and Iran that are alreay rapidly deteorating. On Friday, President Donald Trump announced the new US strategy on Iran and the Department of Treasury designated the IRGC as a terrorist group.
“The IRGC’s stated purpose is to subvert the international order,”the new US strategy says. “The IRGC’s power and influence have grown over time, even as it has remained unaccountable to the Iranian people, answering only to Khamenei. It is hard to find a conflict or a suffering people in the Middle East that the IRGC’s tentacles do not touch.”
The Trump administration has also launched a diplomatic offensive against the Iran nuclear deal aiming to tighten pressure on Iran within it or to even review it in favor of the US and its allies.
The US and its key parters in the Middle East – Israel and Saudi Arabia – see the growing Iranian power as a key threat to their influence in the region.
