Iran Guards brush off US threat

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TEHRAN, Aug 16 (Reuters): Iran's Revolutionary Guards will grow in strength despite US efforts to isolate the force, a Guards official said in remarks published Thursday after Washington's threat to brand it a "terrorist" group.
US officials said Wednesday the United States might soon name the Guards a foreign terrorist group, a move that would enable Washington to target the force's finances.
Washington is leading efforts to isolate Iran for refusing to rein in its nuclear program and comply with UN demands. The United States says Iran is seeking atomic bombs, a charge Tehran denies, saying it wants only to make electricity.
"Not only would the Revolutionary Guards not be isolated but rather it would actively continue its trend of growth with strength," the head of the political office of the Guards, named only as Javani, was quoted by the daily Jam-e Jam as saying.
"Americans have been fighting the Islamic system for 27 years and create plots against it. But the Revolutionary Guards have made defending the Islamic system its duty and will increase its capabilities in this regard day by day," he added.
Iran experts and diplomats said the squeeze on financing for the Guards also was aimed at pacifying hard-liners within and outside the Bush administration who wa0nt military action against Tehran and are frustrated that diplomatic pressure has not worked either on curbing the nuclear program or over Iraq.
Analysts say sanctions on the Guards would be difficult to enforce and the main goal seemed to be to put pressure on Iran by using the designation to press financial institutions to cut ties with Iranian businesses.
The Revolutionary Guards are an ideologically driven force, who see themselves as a guardians of the Islamic Republic.