TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has provided the neighboring countries with utmost support in countering terrorist groups.

His comments came as the Trump administration is considering to designate the IRGC a terrorist organization.

“Such moves by the U.S. have never been beneficial for the country. All the world has admitted that the IRGC has provided the neighboring countries with utmost support in countering terrorism,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony held to commemorate the martyrs of the Foreign Ministry.

According to Reuters, officials from the Pentagon and U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies have raised objections to naming the IRGC a terrorist group.

Reuters reported another of the officials as saying that adding the IRGC to the terrorist list would cause friction with U.S. European allies, who in the wake of the 2015 nuclear agreement are trying to rebuild business ties to Iran.

It has been acknowledged that if the IRGC had not rushed to the support of the Iraqi army in 2004, Daesh (ISIS) would have captured more Iraqi cities.

NA/PA