If the IRGC Is Iran, Then Say Iran. If It Isn’t, Where Does Iran End and the IRGC Begin?

The United Kingdom recently designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a threat to national security under the National Security Act, making support for the organization a criminal offense punishable by up to fourteen years in prison.

This decision follows a broader international pattern. The IRGC has been designated as a terrorist organization or entity by numerous countries and international bodies, including the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, Israel, and others.

In my previous article, Sovereignty Is Not a Privilege. It Is a Liability., I discussed the relationship between Lebanon and Hezbollah and argued that sovereignty and responsibility are inseparable. A sovereign state bears responsibility not only for the actions of its official institutions, but also for hostile acts originating from territory under its sovereignty.

That principle led me to a simple question.

Why should Israel care?

Why should Israel care whether the rockets were launched by Hezbollah, a militia, a political movement, a revolutionary guard, a tribal army, or some other armed organization?

The only reason Israel should care about Hezbollah’s identity is the same reason every nation studies its adversaries: to know its enemy, understand its capabilities, and defend itself more effectively.

Beyond that, Hezbollah’s internal relationship with Lebanon is fundamentally Lebanon’s problem.

Iran presents almost the opposite situation.

Lebanon often argues that Hezbollah is an independent force beyond the government’s effective control. Iran makes the opposite argument. It insists that the IRGC is an integral part of the Islamic Republic and condemned the UK’s designation as “irresponsible” precisely because it treats the IRGC as separate from the Iranian state.

That position has an important consequence. The ordinary principles of state........

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