Iran will retaliate in kind if U.S. designates Guards as terrorists

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Iran will take reciprocal action against the U.S. if Washington designates the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as terrorists, a majority of Iranian parliamentarians said on Sunday, according to state news agency IRNA.

The U.S. is expected to designate the Revolutionary Guards a foreign terrorist organization, three U.S. officials told Reuters, marking the first time Washington has formally labeled another country's military a terrorist group.

"We will answer any action taken against this force with a reciprocal action," a statement issued by 255 out of the 290 Iranian lawmakers said, according to IRNA.

"So the leaders of America, who themselves are the creators and supporters of terrorists in the (Middle East) region, will regret this inappropriate and idiotic action."

The U.S. decision, which critics warn could open U.S. military and intelligence officials to similar actions by unfriendly governments abroad, is expected to be announced by the State Department perhaps as early as Monday, the U.S. officials said last week.

Iranian mourners gather around the coffins of Revolutionary Guards that were killed in a suicide attack, during their funeral in southeastern city of Isfahan, February 16, 2019. /VCG Photo

Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday U.S. officials aiming to designate IRGC as a terrorist group want to "drag the U.S. into a quagmire" on behalf of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The U.S. military will no longer have calm in west Asia if the U.S designates the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, the head of the Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency on Sunday.

"With this stupidity, the American army and security forces will no longer have today's calm in the west Asia region," Jafari was quoted as saying.

(Cover: Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard march during a parade to commemorate the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), in Tehran, September 22, 2011. /Reuters Photo)

Source(s): Reuters