Iran’s regime released staged images of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an attempt to show strength and boost a military under strain, according to opposition groups operating outside the country.
The photographs, published by Iranian state media Jan. 31, marked Khamenei’s first public appearance in weeks and showed him praying at the tomb of Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as regime officials issued new threats against the U.S. and Europe.
Ali Safavi, a senior official with the calls from the European Parliament to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
"The IRGC is the backbone of this regime," Safavi said. "Its disintegration can only occur after a fundamental shift in the balance of forces and with the presence of organized resistance on the ground. Only then do defections at lower levels of the military become meaningful."
Tehran reacted angrily to the European move with Iranian lawmakers appearing in IRGC uniforms in a highly choreographed show of solidarity, according to reports.
A banner reading, "The Revolutionary Guard is the largest anti-terrorism organization in the world," was displayed at the speaker’s podium, and the IRGC flag was prominently featured, according to the dispatched a naval strike group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln to the region, Khamenei also warned Sunday in comments reported by Iranian state media that any military action would trigger a wider regional conflict.
"We are not the ones who start a war," Khamenei said . "But if America attacks or harms Iran, the Iranian nation will deliver a strong blow — and any war started by America will spread across the region," he said per Donald Trump said Sunday that if Iran does not reach a deal on its nuclear program, "we’ll find out" whether Khamenei’s warning proves correct.
"Doing business with Iran means doing business with the IRGC," Safavi said. "The IRGC is the regime — even the clerics."