Terrorist Label for Iran Guard Reflects U.S. Impatience With U.N. 

By Helene Cooper and Nazila Fathi
August 16, 2007
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/world/middleeast/16iran.html


WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 — In moving toward designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, the Bush administration is adopting a more confrontational approach with Tehran, reflecting frustration with a stalled sanctions package at the United Nations Security Council, officials said Wednesday. 
White House and State Department officials were debating when to make the formal designation — White House officials want to do so now, and the State Department wants to wait until various August recesses are over — but the administration was already adopting tougher talk toward Tehran.
“We are confronting Iranian behavior across a variety of different fronts, on a number of different, quote unquote, battlefields, if you will,” the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, told reporters in Washington. His use of the word “battlefields” was described by some European diplomats as another ratcheting up of the anti-Iran statements.
Mr. McCormack maintained that his use of the word did not mean that the State Department had adopted the view that the United States should confront Iran militarily, a view that has been advocated by some officials in Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. 
“I was trying to illustrate that you don’t just confront Iran with guns and soldiers; sometimes you do it with lawyers and accountants and diplomats,” Mr. McCormack said. 
But other administration officials said that the United States was getting increasingly frustrated that Security Council sanctions, which were meant to rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, have been anemic. Beyond that, administration officials are worried that America’s allies in imposing the sanctions — particularly Russia and China — have been slow to agree to increase the pressure and have balked at imposing tougher measures.
In Tehran, politicians across the board said Wednesday that if the United States proceeded with plans to declare the Revolutionary Guard a foreign terrorist organization, the action would only unify politicians in Iran and lead to an escalation of hostility between the countries. 
Iranian government officials were not available to comment on the issue. But the Fars News Agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guard, quoted an official at the Foreign Ministry as dismissing the news as propaganda. 
Analysts and former government officials in Tehran, both conservative and reformist, said the planned designation of the Guard as a terrorist organization was intended to destabilize the government.
“Maybe the Revolutionary Guards have done certain things in their own backyard,” said Saeed Leylaz, an economist and a reformist political analyst, referring to Afghanistan and Iraq. “But they have also cooperated with Americans there.” 
“Now the United States is asking Iran to help stabilize Iraq, but in the meantime suggests that after stability in Iraq it will come after Iran,” added Mr. Leylaz, who often criticizes President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran and the United States have held three rounds of talks on an ambassadorial level in Baghdad in recent months to discuss how to stabilize Iraq. The talks were held as United States officials accused Iran of stepping up support for radical Shiite militia groups in Iraq.
Iran has brushed off the accusations and has said its efforts are aimed at stabilizing a democratic government in Iraq.
“The Americans want to cover up their own failure in Iraq with these kinds of accusations,” said Akbar Alami, a reformist member of Parliament. 
A former deputy defense minister, Alireza Akbari, warned that the measure could cause instability in the region. “If they put pressure on the security apparatus of a country, they should expect a similar reaction,” he said. “And it would certainly serve the real terrorists in the region if the United States and Iran move toward confronting one another.” 
Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Nazila Fathi from Tehran.