On April 15, president Trump made a historic announcement in which he officially recognized an elite group inside the Iranian military as a terrorist organization. Iran warned the US that if this announcement were to go through they would retaliate by doing the same thing to the US military.

There have been tensions between the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and the United States has been long-lasting. The US Treasury Department named a unit inside of the IRGC as a supporter of terrorism and “[Iran’s] primary arm for executing its policy of supporting terrorist and insurgent groups.”

Brian Hook, Iran’s representative for the State Department claims that over 600 US service members were killed by Iranians and that thousands of Iraqis were killed by IRGC proxies. US officials also allege that the IRGC is moving towards Syria which is a direct threat to Israel.

US officials allege that the IRGC controls a large amount of Iran’s economy—up to 20% of Iran’s GDP. This small fact is why liberal opinion writers feel that this may be a reason that the declaration was a mistake. Due to the massive amount of control the IRGC has over the Iranian economy, many Iranians have no choice but to do business with the IRGC—which technically would be supporting a foreign terrorist organization.

On the other end of the spectrum, conservative opinion writer, Brett Velicovich, felt that “much of the turmoil we see around the world is a direct result of the actions of the IRGC and state sponsorship of terrorism by Iran.”