The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in a statement on Thursday blasted the recent remarks by US President Donald Trump against the IRGC, stressing that it will continue progress in missile industries, Fars News Agency (FNA) reported.

“The regional influence and might and development of the Islamic Republic’s missile power which was established when the country was fully under sanctions will continue and advance without a stop and more rapidly,” the statement said.

It added that Trump’s hostile positions and the US new cruel sanctions against the IRGC all indicate that the White House and Israeli plots to change the region’s map and disintegrate and weaken the Islamic countries have all failed and they are angry with the IRGC's role in foiling their plots.

The IRGC “will continue its relentless fight against the hegemonic system and Zionism more resolutely and powerfully than before and it will not hesitate a moment in defending the Islamic Revolution and the country's national interests”, the statement underlined.  

In relevant remarks earlier this month, IRGC top Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said imposition of new sanctions by Washington against Iran means a US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, and warned that the US should leave the region and stay 2,000km away from Iran if the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) comes into effect.

“The Islamic Republic (of Iran) sees implementation of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) as the US unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal and as we have declared in the past too, if the US new sanctions act comes into action, the US should transfer its regional bases to 2,000km away, that is as far as the range of Iranian missiles,” General Jafari said.

General Jafari noted reports coming from Washington that the US President’s new strategy intends to designate the IRGC itself as a terrorist organization, and issued a tough warning to Donald Trump, saying: “If reports prove to be true that the US administration intends to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, then the IRGC will also specify the US army as a group (and target) like ISIL in all parts of the world, specially the Middle-East.”