Ayatollah Khamenei calls US blacklisting of Guards a ‘vicious move’

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the United States had made “a vicious move” in designating the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organisation, and Tehran vowed to take action against US forces in the region, Reuters reports.

“They wish to plot against our Sepah (the Guard corps) … it is in the front line of confronting enemies of our (1979 Islamic) revolution and has always defended the country … America has failed to block our advances,” Ayatollah Khamenei, who controls the Guards, was quoted as saying by the state media.

“In spite of all the pressure over the past 40 years, Americans have failed to do a damn thing, and their vicious move will bear no fruit,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, a day after a decision by US President Donald Trump that is likely to raise tensions in the Middle East.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also defended the corps as protectors of Iran, saying in a televised speech that the United States “holds a grudge” against the Guards who have “sacrificed their lives to protect our people, our revolution”.