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44 I Eurasia bne May 2019
TEHRAN BLOG:
“Dangerous and disingenuous” – Is Trump building a case
for war with Iran?
bne IntelliNews
Aformer top US State Department official is among experts con- cerned that the Trump adminis- tration’s unprecedented designation of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) – which took effect on April 15 – is part of a plan to lay the groundwork for strikes on Iranian forces, especially in Iraq or Syria where Iranian forces might encounter US troops.
“One of the reasons why this action occurred could be because there’s an actual interest to do things directly against the IRGC,” Jason Blazakis,
who served as the director of the State Department’s Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office from 2008
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to 2018, was quoted as saying by ABC News on April 14.
While the designation doesn’t provide legal authority itself, it could be part of the administration’s argument, Blazakis added.
Critics are concerned that the uber- hawkish White House may be planning to stretch or bend the law to the limit to claim US legal authority for strikes on Iranian forces.
“I am troubled that the administration can’t unequivocally say that you haven’t been given power. I can tell you explicitly, you have not been given power or author- ity by Congress to have war with Iran,”
Republican Senator Rand Paul, told US Secretary of State Pompeo on April 10.
In response, Pompeo refused to rule out whether the US Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) authorised military action against Iran or the IRGC, telling Paul: “I’d prefer to just leave that to the lawyers.”
“Priming the public”
Tess Bridgeman, who served as dep-
uty legal adviser to President Barack Obama’s National Security Council, told CBS: "The Trump administration seems to be priming the public for an argument that the 2001 AUMF covers Iran."
The AUMF, passed by Congress on