By DPA
Washington : The US Thursday declared an Iranian elite military unit and Iran’s three major banks supporters of terrorism, stepping up pressure on Tehran to stop its alleged nuclear proliferation programme.
The action against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) “for proliferation activities” and the Quds Force for providing material support to the Taliban and other terrorist organisations represented an unprecedented action against the armed forces of a sovereign government.
Bank Melli, Bank Mellat, and Bank Saderat are three of Iran’s largest banks, and “they all have facilitated Iran’s proliferation activities or its support for terrorism,” US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said announcing the move.
Paulson called upon banks and companies around the world to “terminate” business with the three banks and the IRGC.
He made the announcement at the US State Department, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at his side.
Iran insists that its nuclear programme is intended for civilian use only and denies it is developing nuclear weapons.
The move Thursday follows Washington’s failed efforts to get Russia and China to agree in the UN Security Council to a further round of sanctions against Iran for refusing to fully reveal its nuclear programmes to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The US already classifies the Iranian government as a state that sponsors terrorism, and had threatened to designate the IRCG as a terrorist organization.
“In dealing with Iran, it is nearly impossible to know one’s customer and be assured that one is not unwittingly facilitating the regime’s reckless conduct,” Paulson said.
“Iran also funnels hundreds of millions of dollars each year through the international financial system to terrorists.”
In practice, the action is mostly symbolic, with US measures in place against Iran’s revolutionary regime since the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran.