U.S. says Iran group is terrorist organization

WASHINGTON – The State Department on Wednesday formally designated an Iranian anti-government group as a foreign terrorist organization, which some analysts took as a gesture of U.S. goodwill toward the Iranian government.

The group, Jundullah, is a Sunni organization that has killed dozens of Iranian civilians and military personnel to defend the Baloch minority in Iran’s remote southeastern corner. The Iranian government has accused the United States of supporting the group to destabilize the regime, and has demanded that Washington regard Jundullah as a terrorist organization.

The State Department said in a statement that since 2003 the group has used suicide bombings, ambushes, kidnapping and assassinations “resulting in the death and maiming of scores of Iranian civilians and government officials.”

The U.S. designation “could be intended by the (Iranian) government as a goodwill gesture,” said Alireza Nader, an Iran specialist at the RAND Corp. in Virginia.