Tehran has promised ‘crushing’ retaliation if the US decides to add the powerful force to list of terrorist groups 
 
 Soon after the Shah of Iran was forced from power in 1979, a small group of the uprising’s young leaders suggested the creation of a national guard, tasked with preserving the new Islamic revolution and counterbalancing the country’s conventional military. 
 
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 Ayatollah Khomenei, the charismatic cleric who soon became the country’s supreme leader, hesitated to call the members of the new force “guards”, fearing the word was too close to the French word widely used to refer to the ousted monarch’s elite personal force. 
 
 Instead he opted for sepah, a Persian word for soldiers with historical connotations, and the new force became known asthe sepah-e-pasdaran or “army of the guardians”. 
 
 Most foreign governments, however, refer to it as the Islamic revolutionary guard corps – a force that, 38 years later, has become a key player both inside Iran and across the region. 
 
 Reports that the US government is poised to designate the IRGC as a terrorist group have sparked jitters in Tehran, overshadowing Donald Trump’s expected plan to tear up the landmark nuclear deal. 
 
 
 
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 The US accuses the IRGC of terror mainly because of its military support for Hezbollah and Hamas, organisations that the US and EU have both designated as terrorist groups. Trump has argued that Iran’s support for such groups violates the spirit of the nuclear deal. 
 
 Iranian officials say privately that Trump’s ability to unravel the nuclear deal is bound by the US Congress and the reaction of Washington’s allies in Europe. They warn, however, that a move against the IRGC would be a step too far and could even push the two countries towards open war. 
 
 Political leaders in Tehran are keen to show unity. A smiling IRGC commander, Mohammad Ali Jafari, was photographed earlier this week arm in arm with the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the architect of the nuclear deal. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest The IRGC commander, Mohammad Ali Jafari, and Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. Photograph: Handout/Reuters 
 
 Jafari has said that US military bases in the region would be open to attack if his forces were designated a terrorist group. Zarif’s ministry has said that Tehran’s reaction would be “firm, decisive and crushing”. Even the country’s moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, who five months ago made a rare public criticism of the IRGC during his run for a second term, issued his full-throated support for the force, saying that it “has a place in people’s heart”. 
 
 Farideh Farhi, an academic who monitors Iranian affairs closely, said that designating the IRGC as a terrorist group would be unprecedented. 
 
 “The IRGC is a integral part of Iran’s military defence and has constitutional standing as such. The designation of military officers of another country as terrorist will be a first and will open the US military to reciprocal action,” she said. 
 
 Particularly at risk, Farhi said, would be US special forces operating in the Middle East. 
 
 The IRGC initially operated as a local force across Iran, but it expanded quickly after Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980 and Khomeini allowed it to have its own ground, navy and air forces. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Revolutionary guards in wargames near Qom, south of Tehran. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images 
 
 It played a key role in Iran’s defence, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz, where it used small speedboats to stop oil tankers used by Hussein and his allies. 
 
 “Before the war the IRGC militiamen were nothing more than bodyguards to the clerics. Their performance in the war gave them a seat at the proverbial power table,” said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a professor of political science at Syracuse University in the US. 
 
 Khomeini, however, remained wary of its growing force, writing an explicit command for it to stay away from politics into his will. 
 
 After succeding Khomeini in 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei introduced a new dimension to the IRGC’s operational capacity by creating the Quds force, which is in charge of its overseas operations and has worked closely with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine. 
 
 Tehran has never concealed its backing for Hamas and Hezbollah, which it sees as legitimate political parties that have won elections legally, said Ali Alizadeh, a London-based political analyst. 
 
 Such activities have infuriated the US and Iran’s regional rivals, but the IRGC’s operations in Lebanon, Bosnia and Iraq – and more recently its involvement in propping up Syria’s Bashar al-Assad – have hugely endeared them to Khamenei. 
 
 
 
 The US also alleges that Iran has been behind a series of bombings in Iraq that has led to the death of US military personnel, accusations that Iranian officials say are not substantiated. A string of senior IRGC and Quds force officers are already blacklisted and subject to US sanctions. 
 
 Despite the dying wishes of Khomeini, the IRGC did become politically active, most notoriously when its Basij militia helped to crush protests after the disputed 2009 elections. 
 
 
 
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 Soon afterwards it launched a bid to restore its tarnished domestic image by presenting Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Quds force, as a national military hero who has defended the country from Sunni terror groups. 
 
 “When it comes to the current imploding situation in the Middle East, Khamenei is much more prone to listen to Jafari and Suleimani than to Rouhani or Zarif,” said Boroujerdi. “The guards’ institutional capability to exert influence on foreign, domestic and security policies is beyond doubt now.” 
 
 After years operating in the shadows, Suleimani – who was often portrayed as a kind of regional puppet-master of terror – has emerged into the limelight, his presence on the battlefield of Syria and Iraq breathlessly reported in state media. Hoardings in Tehran portray the IRGC as defenders of the nation. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Guards commander Qassem Suleimani has been portrayed as a regional terror master. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images 
 
 One billboard that recently appeared in Tehran shows the firing of five missiles, in reference to the IRGC’s occasional and controversial testing of ballistic weapons, emblazoned with the words: “I am the Guardian of Iran.” 
 
 Like the Pakistani and Chinese militaries, the IRGC also has a large stake in the Iranian economy, both in legal and illegal enterprises. Guard commanders own large swaths of real estate in Tehran and are accused of involvement in lucrative cross-border smuggling operations. 
 
 “The IRGC’s domestic ascendancy is not unique, nor is its future trajectory immutable,” said a recent report from the US Rand thinktank. “As its history has shown, the IRGC is subject to the same worldly pitfalls and evolutionary mutations that affect other bureaucracies, and this will only intensify as the IRGC delves deeper into profit-making financial activities. Indeed, from this observation, there is benefit in comparing the IRGC’s past and future with the evolution of the Pakistani military and Chinese People’s Liberation Army.” 
 
 Mohsen Sazegara was a founding member of Khomeni’s sepah, but is now an exiled dissident and an outspoken critic of the organisation he helped establish. “We created a people’s army to defend the country and also help in emergencies, but it turned into a monster,” he told the Guardian. 
 
 “Its transformation during the Iran-Iraq war, then the creation of the Quds force, its involvement in financial activities and its role in suppressing reformists has turned it into a country inside a country, a government inside a government and an organisation that has no equivalent anywhere in the world. It’s like a river that is overflowing, covering everything.” ||||| In the 11 months since Donald Trump’s election, Tehran has been at pains to avoid kneejerk reactions. In a country of a thousand Friday prayer podiums, the measured responses to the US president’s pronouncements on Iranian activities have revealed much effort behind the scenes to grapple with changed circumstances. 
 
 But Tehran’s response this week to reports that the US is working to designate the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group is an indication that there is a limit to its patience. It is also ratcheting up tensions in an already tense week, which could lead to the undoing of the 2015 nuclear deal. 
 
 
 
 Trump faces a congressional deadline of the end of this week to certify Tehran’s compliance under the agreement. He has threatened to decertify it, which could unravel the accord despite the wishes of Washington’s European allies, the majority of the international community and the US military. 
 
 
 
 There is uncertainty over the extent to which the president will go to show his disdain for the agreement, which was a major foreign policy achievement of the Obama administration. Trump could announce some symbolic new sanctions or restore nuclear-related sanctions in blatant violation of the agreement. 
 
 But one threat has sparked jitters. The Iranian foreign ministry has said the Islamic Republic will show a crushing response should the US list the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist entity. Although the elite forces have been accused of supporting groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, they have so far been spared being labelled a terrorist group. 
 
 
 
 “We are hopeful that the US does not make this strategic mistake,” Bahram Qasemi, the ministry’s spoksman, said in quotes carried by the state news agency Irna. “If they do, Iran’s reaction would be firm, decisive and crushing, and the US should bear all its consequences.” 
 
 
 
 The previous day, state media in Iran reported the head of the Revolutionary Guards threatening the US regional military bases if it was designated a terrorist group. 
 
 
 
 “As we’ve announced in the past, if America’s new law for sanctions is passed, this country will have to move their regional bases outside the 2,000km range of Iran’s missiles,” Maj Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted as saying. 
 
 The European Union has made it clear that it fully supports the nuclear deal, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed eight times that Tehran is complying with it. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has even suggested the agreement should serve as a model to resolve the North Korean crisis. Theresa May, the British prime minister, told her Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday that the UK remained firmly committed to the deal and believed it was vitally important for regional security. 
 
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 Andrew Keller, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for sanctions and counter threat finance, told the Guardian that Trump’s decertification of the deal would be an own goal, and designating the Guards as a terrorist group would be futile and detrimental to the agreement. 
 
 
 
 “It could lead to the unravelling of the deal at a time when Iran is reportedly complying and more and more businesses are engaging as a result of sanctions relief. In other words, the deal is working as we intended it to work. Sanctions may not ultimately be reimposed, but decertification will destabilise the deal for governments and businesses alike,” he said. 
 
 “The IRGC [the Guards] is already subject to multiple US sanctions. Piling on another terrorist designation seems unlikely to stop any IRGC activity, but it will add to the compliance challenges facing businesses engaging in Iran.” 
 
 Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Tehran, said designating the Guards a terrorist group would be a major escalation. “Iran has always been reluctant to butt up against the US because they know they can’t beat America by far so it’s difficult to know how much of [their recent reaction] is bluster and how much is real,” he said. “I don’t think the Iranians want to get into a shooting war with the US, even a skirmish in Iraq or Syria.” 
 
 Dalton said Trump seemed intent on getting to “deal with Iran as a bad actor”, which would translate to “a package of sanctions recommended to Congress, a diplomatic offensive with allies, a statement of policy on missiles or sunset clauses or military site inspections – perhaps linked to extra sanctions, further discouragement of non-US businesses (nixing Airbus along with Boeing [deals with Iran]) and reinforcing EU banks’ concern”. 
 
 According to Dalton, ditching the Iran deal would make it impossible to continue to monitor Iran’s nuclear programme “so thoroughly” and “risks setting the United States on a path of conflict with Iran at the time when the US and the world already have one nuclear crisis in the shape of North Korea. 
 
 “It’s weakening America by causing people to question America’s fidelity to its words and its ability to perceive where its interest lies,” he said. 
 
 
 
 “The chilling effect was very real from November 2016 onwards. There are many uncertainties: will the US impose secondary sanctions on countries that buy Iran’s oil? Will they move the clock back in a way which reinstates nuclear-related sanctions lifted in January 2016 or will they simply confine themselves to additional measures that are non-nuclear in nature? How Trump approaches this and how Congress responds is still uncertain and consequently exactly what the Europeans’ reaction will be.” ||||| LONDON (Reuters) - Iran promised on Monday to give a “crushing” response if the United States designated its elite Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group. 
 
 FILE PHOTO: 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/Stringer/File Photo 
 
 The pledge came a week before President Donald Trump announces a final decision on how he wants to contain the Islamic Republic. 
 
 He is expected on Oct. 15 to “decertify” a landmark 2015 international deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program, a step that by itself stops short of pulling out of the agreement but gives Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions. 
 
 Trump is also expected to designate Iran’s most powerful security force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, as he rolls out a broader, more hawkish U.S. strategy on Iran. 
 
 “We are hopeful that the United States does not make this strategic mistake,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA. 
 
 “If they do, Iran’s reaction would be firm, decisive and crushing and the United States should bear all its consequences,” he told a news conference reported by IRNA. 
 
 Individuals and entities associated with the IRGC are already on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, but the organization as a whole is not. 
 
 IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Sunday, “If the news is correct about the stupidity of the American government in considering the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group, then the Revolutionary Guards will consider the American army to be like Islamic State all around the world.” 
 
 Jafari also said that additional sanctions would end chances for future dialogue with the United States and that the Americans would have to move their regional bases outside the 2,000 km (1,250 mile) range of IRGC’s missiles. 
 
 WARY EUROPE 
 
 U.S. sanctions on the IRGC could affect conflicts in Iraq and Syria, where Tehran and Washington both support warring parties that oppose the Islamic State militant group (IS). 
 
 France said on Monday it was worried that classifying the IRGC as a terrorist group could exacerbate tensions in the region. 
 
 Germany said it was worried Trump would decide Iran is not respecting the nuclear deal, negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, and fears such a step will worsen insecurity in the Middle East. 
 
 A U.S. pullout could unravel an accord seen by supporters as vital to preventing a Middle East arms race and tamping down regional tensions, since it limits Iran’s ability to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel in exchange for the lifting of sanctions that damaged its oil-based economy. 
 
 The U.N. nuclear watchdog’s inspectors have repeatedly declared Iran in compliance with the terms of the nuclear deal. 
 
 Trump called Iran “a corrupt dictatorship” during his first speech to the U.N. General Assembly and said the nuclear deal was “the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into”. 
 
 The other five world powers in the deal were Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. 
 
 The prospect of the United States reneging on the agreement has worried other partners that helped negotiate it. 
 
 The Kremlin said that any U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal would have “negative consequences.” 
 
 British Prime Minister Theresa May, who supports the nuclear pact, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who opposes it, agreed in a phone call on Monday that they need to be “clear-eyed” about the threat Iran poses to the Middle East. 
 
 “They agreed that ... the international community should continue working together to push back against Iran’s destabilizing regional activity,” May’s spokesman said. 
 
 “MALIGN ACTIVITIES” 
 
 Despite the nuclear deal, Washington still maintains its own more limited sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program and over accusations Tehran supports terrorism. 
 
 Iran says it is developing missiles solely for defensive purposes and denies involvement in terrorism. 
 
 The Trump administration aims to put more pressure on the IRGC, especially over recent missile tests and what Washington has called its “malign activities” across the Middle East. 
 
 The U.S. government imposed sanctions in July on 18 entities and people for supporting the IRGC in developing drones and military equipment. In August, Congress overwhelmingly approved the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” which imposed new sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile program, as well as sanctions on Russia and North Korea. 
 
 In an interview aired on Saturday night, Trump accused Iran of “funding North Korea” and “doing things with North Korea that are totally inappropriate”. 
 
 Qasemi, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, said the U.S. accusations were “baseless”. He added, “Israel and some specific countries are raising these accusations to create Iranophobia.”
– If the US designates Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization—as reports state President Trump is likely to do—it would be a "strategic mistake," according to Iran's foreign ministry. "Iran’s reaction would be firm, decisive, and crushing, and the US should bear all its consequences," the Guardian quotes ministry spokesperson Bahram Qasemi as saying Monday. Reuters reports the threats continued from Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, who said such a decision would show "the stupidity of the American government" and would force the Revolutionary Guards to "consider the American army to be like [the] Islamic State." Jafari says the US would have to move its military bases in the region outside the 1,250-mile range of the Revolutionary Guards' missiles. The US has a complicated relationship with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which is accused of supporting groups like Hamas and Hezbollah while also helping the US fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Atlantic reports. While the Revolutionary Guards itself has never been listed as a terrorist organization by the US, individuals and groups associated with it have. Experts say Trump designating it a terrorist organization would be a largely political move as the Revolutionary Guards has already had a number of sanctions placed on it by the US. Experts also say past attempts by the US to play tough with the Revolutionary Guards have only strengthened it in Iran, and Trump risks further escalating tensions with the country as he mulls a move to "decertify" the Iran nuclear deal.