US To Blacklist IRGC, Iran to Respond

By Staff, Agencies

American officials confirmed that the US would designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) a "foreign terrorist organization," the Associated Press reported early Monday.

The announcement is reportedly expected to come on Monday according to two officials and a congressional aide who were unauthorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.  

Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded Sunday warning that such a move by Trump would have serious ramifications for the United States. 

"Netanyahu firsters [allies] who have long agitated for FTO designation of the IRGC fully understand its consequences for US forces in the region. In fact, they seek to drag US into a quagmire on his behalf. Trump should know better than to be conned into another US disaster," Zarif tweeted. 

Iran also promised to return the favor if the United States designates the Revolutionary Guards [IRGC] as a terrorist organization.  

“If the Revolutionary Guards are placed on America’s list of terrorist groups, we will put that country’s military on the terror blacklist next to Daesh [Islamic State],” head of parliament’s national security committee Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh wrote on Twitter Saturday.

The warning from Tehran came after the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Washington will designate IRGC as a terrorist organization, an unprecedented move that would ramp up pressure on the elite force, 

The newspaper, quoting unnamed officials, said President Donald Trump's administration would announce the long-mulled decision as soon as Monday and that concerned defense officials were bracing for the impact.

“We will answer any action taken against this force with a reciprocal action. 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,” 255 out of Iran's parliament’s 290 members said in a joint statement, according to Reuters. 

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also commented on the report, accusing Netanyahu's allies in Washington of being behind the move against the IRGC