US President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday urged US diplomats abroad to push allies to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon-based Hezbollah as terrorist groups.

Axar.az informs, citing Reuters, the directive, dated March 16 and signed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was sent to all US diplomatic and consular posts worldwide.

It asks US diplomats to deliver the message to their counterparts “at the highest appropriate level” and no later than March 20, adding that the advocacy efforts to get these groups blacklisted should be coordinated with Israeli counterparts.

The IRGC is an elite military force whose purpose is to protect Shia Muslim clerical rule in Iran. It controls large parts of Iran’s economy. Both the IRGC and the Lebanon-based Shia Muslim armed group Hezbollah are already designated as terrorist groups by the United States and some other countries.