WASHINGTON — The Bush administration plans to roll out an unprecedented package of unilateral sanctions against Iran today, including the long-awaited designations of its Revolutionary Guard Corps as a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and of the elite Quds Force for supporting terrorism, according to senior administration officials.
The package, to be announced jointly by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr., marks the first time that the United States has tried to isolate or punish another country’s military. It is the broadest set of punitive measures imposed on Tehran since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy, the officials said.
“This is a very powerful set of measures designed to send a message to Iran that there will be a cost to what they do. We decided on them because we have seen no change in Iranian behavior,” said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the measures have not yet been announced. “Our diplomacy needs to be stronger and more effective.”
The move caps a year of growing U.S. pressure on Tehran, including billions of dollars in arms sales to Persian Gulf allies and Israel, interception of Iranian arms shipments in Iraq and Afghanistan, detention of Iranian agents in Iraq, and pressure on the United Nations and European allies to increase Iran’s isolation.
The dramatic U.S. steps underscore the escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
The new sanctions will empower the United States to financially isolate a large part of Iran’s military and anyone inside or outside Iran who does business with it, U.S. officials said.
The Revolutionary Guard Corps, which numbers at least 125,000, is the most powerful wing of Iran’s military. It controls a growing sector of the economy, including construction companies, aspects of the oil industry, pharmaceutical plants, telecommunications and ordinary commerce. U.S. officials said it also operates the front companies that procure nuclear technology.
The administration will designate the entire Revolutionary Guard under Executive Order 13382, signed by President Bush in June 2005, which allows the United States to freeze the assets of any proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and its supporters.
Iran is being designated for its ballistic missile program. The United States will announce a list of Iranians involved in that program – civilians as well as military officials – who will also be designated, U.S. officials said.
Under the same executive order, the administration also intends to designate Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, which controls Iran’s defense industries, as well as companies owned or controlled by the Revolutionary Guard, U.S. officials said.
The overall impact, according to U.S. officials, will be to make a pariah of the most critical parts of Iran’s military and its defense and commercial industries.
The United States hopes that allies in Europe and Asia will impose similar sanctions, because efforts to get a tough U.N. resolution have stalled as a result of Russian and Chinese opposition.
“The international community’s got to get a lot tougher if it’s going to be resolved diplomatically,” Rice said about Iran’s suspected nuclear program.
