Iranian lawmakers are responding to the Trump administration's designation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist organization with chants of “Death to America,” according to the Associated Press.
President Hassan Rouhani said the designation would make members of the guard more popular “than any other time in the hearts of the Iranian nation,” according to the AP.
Numerous members of Iran’s parliament wore the Revolutionary Guard’s uniform in solidarity on Tuesday.
Supreme National Security Council Spokesman, Keivan Khosravi said that going forward, “any unusual move by American forces in the region will be perceived as the behavior by a terrorist group, according to the AP.
“This mistake will unite Iranians and the Guards will grow more popular in Iran and in the region,” Rouhani said in a televised address, according to Reuters. “America has used terrorists as a tool in the region while the Guards have fought against them from Iraq to Syria.”
Saudi Arabia, which has long had an adversarial relationship with Iran, has applauded the U.S. designation. A Saudi Foreign Ministry official told the AP the move “translates Saudi Arabia’s repeated demands for the international community to confront terrorism supported by Iran.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces re-election Tuesday and reportedly pushed the U.S. to make the designation, also praised the decision.
The U.S. designation of the Guard marks the first time the nation has applied the designation to an entire government entity.
Iran has responded by declaring the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) a terrorist organization and the U.S. government a sponsor of terrorism.
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