The elite fighting force were founded in 1979.

The BBC has been able to confirm reports carried by two major US newspapers that the Bush administration has been discussing this issue and is now prepared to do it. For now, officials aren't confirming or denying it.

We're not gonna talk about internal deliberations, about any actions that may be under active consideration. We're also not gonna talk about any actions that we may plan to take in the future. It's just not an area that I'm gonna venture into.   US state department spokesman Sean McCormack.

If the Revolutionary Guards are added to the list, it would be the first time a part of a sovereign country's military has been put on it.

Washington has said there's evidence the Guards have been involved in training and supplying weapons to militants in Iraq and Afghanistan.

An Iranian MP, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, condemned the plans saying the decision would result in the US list losing all credibility:

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh.

The Bush administration has recently been ratcheting up its rhetoric on Iran; this was the president last week at a press conference with Hamid Karzai:

President Bush.

The allegations that Iran is training or funding militias whether in Afghanistan or in Iraq or Lebanon, there's obviously some truth in it.   Kraim Sajidpour.

One of the first newspapers to break the story was the New York Times. Helene Cooper wrote the article and Newshour asked her if the decision would definitely be taken?

Helene Cooper.

Just how much is known about the Revolutionary Guards, their ideology and their reach? The Bush administration has described them as state within a state but are they that powerful, and dangerous? For some answers Newshour spoke to Karim Sajidpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington and asked:

Karim Sajidpour.

First broadcast 15th August.