Canada added Iran’s Quds Force to a list of terrorist groups on Thursday, saying the elite special operations unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had been arming the Taliban, Hamas and others.

AFP reported that Canada’s Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said the Quds Force was responsible for “exporting the Iranian Revolution through activities such as facilitating terrorist operations.”

He accused it of providing “arms, funding and paramilitary training to extremist groups, including the Taliban, Lebanese Hizbullah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.”

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards told a news conference in Tehran in September that members of the Quds Force were present in Syria and Lebanon but insisted they were only there to provide “counsel.”

Canada lists 43 entities as terrorist groups and on Wednesday, AFP reported, it announced it would remove Iran’s Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) from its list. The move follows similar moves by both the United States and the European Union.

Last week Canada expanded its sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in a bid to ramp up pressure on the Islamic Republic.

The Canadian government expanded the sanctions from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s senior leadership to include the entire corps — a parallel military of more than 100,000 and a covert terrorist group behind attacks well beyond Iran’s borders. In September, Canada announced it would expel Iranian diplomats from its territory and withdraw Canada’s representatives from Iran.

Baird explained at the time that Canada is cutting off ties with Iran because “Canada views the Government of Iran as the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today.”