Iran said on Tuesday the United States would be “joining the terrorists’ camp” if it chose to declare its Islamic Revolution Guards Corps a terrorist organization.
US President Donald Trump is expected this week to designate IRGC as a terrorist organization to contain Iran’s regional influence. This is aimed at reversing the failure of its regional allies in pursuing their destabilizing agendas in Iraq and Syria.
“The world should be thankful to the IRGC for its fight against terrorists, especially against Daesh [an Arabic acronym for the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group],” Iranian government spokesman, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, said in a weekly news conference on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
“So by taking a stance against IRGC and designating it a terrorist group, the Americans would be joining the terrorists’ camp,” he added.
Trump is expected to decertify a landmark 2015 deal Iran struck with world powers to curb its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.
His announcement would stop short of pulling out of the agreement, but give the US Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Monday Tehran would give a “firm, decisive and crushing” response, if the US goes ahead with the plan to target IRGC.
