Khamenei Calls U.S. Move Against Guards, ‘Trickery And Deceit’

One day after the United States designated the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described the measure as “trickery, deceit and maliciousness”.

In a meeting with a group of IRGC personnel Khamenei said, “Americans imagine they are doing trickery against the IRGC, the revolution and Iran, but these deceits will not achieve anything, and maliciousness will come back to bite them. The enemies of the Islamic Republic; Trump and the idiots around the American regime are moving toward their lowest point of degradation”.

Khamenei added that for 40 years the U.S. applied “all kinds of political, economic and propaganda pressures” but even when the Islamic Republic was a novice system they were not able to do anything.

Khamenei claimed that the U.S. action is the result of the prowess of IRGC, “on the borders and even thousands of kilometers farther” in Syria and in the “battlefield of political confrontation with the enemy”.

IRGC’s activities in the region in organizing militias loyal to Iran who further its foreign policy goals has been one of the main issues for the Trump administration and in adopting its tough policy toward the Islamic Republic. U.S. allies in the region also see Iran’s interventionist policies, often carried out by the IRGC, as a serious threat.