Blacklisting IRGC, a gift to Netanyahu

"Rushing to announce the decision in days when IRGC is busy rescuing flood-hit [Iranian] people is just a gift to Netanyahu to help him in the Israeli elections," Baeidinejad said in a tweet on Monday.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has also called the US decision "another election-eve gift to Netanyahu". Zarif earlier warned that the Israeli regime was seeking to drag the US into "another disaster" in the Middle East.

The administration of US President Donald Trump designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization on Monday through an official statement.

"This designation will be the first time that the United States has ever named a part of another government as a FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization)," Trump said in his statement, adding that this action will significantly expand the scope and scale of US maximum pressure on the Iranian government.

In a retaliation, Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has designated American forces in West Asia, known as the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), as a "terrorist organization."

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