Iran has ‘all options on table’ if US blacklists Revolutionary Guards

LONDON: Iran told the United States on Tuesday that it will keep “all options on table” if President Donald Trump designates its elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

It came hours after the government said Washington itself would be aiding terrorism if it took such an action.

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce this week his final decision on how he wants to contain Iran’s regional influence.

Trump is also expected to “decertify” a landmark 2015 deal Iran struck with world powers to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of most international sanctions. Trump’s announcement would stop short of pulling out of the agreement, punting that decision to Congress which would have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions.

He is also expected to designate Iran’s most powerful security force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as a terrorist organisation.

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.

“The Americans are too small to be able to harm the Revolutionary Guards,” Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying by ISNA. “We have all options on the table. Whatever they do, we will take reciprocal measures,” he added. The Iranian nuclear deal, agreed in 2015 and supported by European countries, Russia and China, lifted international sanctions on Iran in return for it agreeing to curbs on its nuclear programme.

Washington maintains separate unilateral sanctions on Iran over its missile programme and allegations that it supports terrorism in the Middle East. It already blacklists some individuals and entities for supporting IRGC activities, but not the Guards themselves.

The Guards have a vast economic empire in Iran. Designating them terrorists could make it more difficult for some Iranian businesses to take advantage of the lifting of sanctions to interact with global banks, which are required to verify their clients. BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha on Tuesday announced that General Elections would be held in November 2018, more than four years after the army launched a coup in 2014.

General Prayuta, chief of the country’s military junta since then, said at a Cabinet meeting that the exact dates would be announced around June 2018, reports Efe news.

The announcement comes days after Prayut met with the US President Donald Trump and told him they would hold free and fair elections in 2018. Thailand’s new law on political parties, one of the four essential organic laws required for holding general elections, came into effect on Sunday. The other laws include those that will regulate the election commission, approved earlier this year.