The President Donald Trump administration announced its plan this week to officially designate Iran's military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps , as a foreign terrorist organization , effective April 15.
"The economics are expected to be minimal because the IRGC is heavily sanctioned, and international companies have to be incredibly cautious engaging in business in Iran," Sanam Vakil, a senior fellow at Chatham House and associate professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told CNBC via phone.
Formed in the wake of Iran's 1979 revolution, the deeply ideological IRGC was designated by Washington as a specially designated global terrorist and sanctioned under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act in 2017. "The symbolism, however, is very important here," Vakil said."The Trump administration is upping the ante in their maximum pressure campaign, because their policy as it stands today has yet to see any change in Iranian behavior."
Indeed, the FTO label makes it a crime to knowingly provide material support to the IRGC. It also puts immigration restrictions on anyone who's ever been linked to the IRGC, potentially blocking them from entering the U.S.