Iran's Khamenei calls U.S. blacklisting of Guards a 'vicious move'

FILE PHOTO: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech on the first day of Persian New Year, also known as Nowruz in Mashhad, northeast of Tehran, Iran March 21, 2019. Khamenei.ir/Handout via REUTERS

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the United States had made "a vicious move" in designating the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organisation, and Tehran vowed to take action against U.S. forces in the region.

"They wish to plot against our Sepah (the Guard corps) ... it is in the front line of confronting enemies of our (1979 Islamic) revolution and has always defended the country ... America has failed to block our advances," Khamenei, who controls the Guards, was quoted as saying by the state media.