Various Iranian officials have warned U.S. President Donald Trump against officially designating Iran’s hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, threatening a “crushing” response if he moves forward with the label.
If speculation about Trump’s “stupid decision” to label the IRGC as a terror group come true, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards will treat the U.S. military around the world as their Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) enemies, warned IRGC Commander Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari last Sunday, reports Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency.
“If the news is correct about the stupidity of the American government in considering the Guards a terrorist group, then the Guards will consider the American army to be like Daesh all around the world particularly in the Middle East,” said Gen. Jafari, according to the Tehran Times.
“The Americans are too small to be able to harm the Revolutionary Guards,” added Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Despite the threats from state-sponsor of terrorism Iran against Trump’s potential designation of the Revolutionary Guards as terrorists, Iranian government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht argued Tuesday that the IRGC is an anti-terrorist force.
Shiite IRGC fighters have been fighting a war against Sunni ISIS jihadists in the Middle East, particularly in Syria.
However, IRGC troops have been linked to the deaths of American troops in the past.
More recently, the Islamic guards threatened to “drown” U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf.
In January 2016, IRGC vessels captured and humiliated 10 U.S. Navy sailors after their two ships drifted into Iranian waters. Iran ended up releasing the American sailors the following day.
The U.S. military has long warned that Iran also uses the IRGC to engage in “malign activity” across the world including the Western Hemisphere, namely in Latin America.
Nevertheless, some Iranian officials continue to defend the IRGC, saying it always comes to the help of oppressed people across the world and sides with Muslim nations around the world.
Tehran’s vigorous defense of the IRGC’s record came after news surfaced that Trump is expected to decertify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal and may label the IRGC a terrorist organization as part of his Iran strategy.
Speculation on whether Trump would designate the IRGC a terror group surfaced soon after the president took office.
Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromihe, the Iranian minister of communication and information technology, said he hopes the Trump administration would not make “the strategic mistake” of blacklisting the IRGC, adding such an “insolent move” would not go “unanswered.”