In an official policy announcement released by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic has formally added two groups — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon’s political-military movement Hezbollah — to its national list of designated terrorist organizations.
The Dominican government clarified that the decision aligns with multiple binding international frameworks and domestic legal standards, including counterterrorism resolutions adopted by the United Nations Security Council, the Inter-American Convention against Terrorism, and existing national counterterrorism legislation. This move marks a notable shift in the country’s formal designation of transnational groups, bringing it into alignment with a growing number of nations that have taken similar action in recent years.
Notably, the new designation does not immediately disrupt the existing diplomatic arrangements between the Dominican Republic and Iran. Iran currently maintains non-resident diplomatic accreditation for the Dominican Republic through its embassy in neighboring Cuba, a arrangement that remains in place following the announcement. The accredited Iranian ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Seyed Mohammad Hadi Sobhani, only formally presented his credentials to Dominican President Luis Abinader this past December 2024, just months before the counterterrorism designation was made public.