A high-ranking officer in the naval branch of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards defiantly warned this week that his force would turn the Gulf into a "hell" for his country's enemies if they attack the Islamic Republic.

 

His voice was among a well orchestrated chorus of Guards commanders responding to last week's decision by President George W. Bush to designate the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.

 

"With the power the Guards have obtained now, if the enemies want to ... start a military confrontation, the Persian Gulf will become a hell for them," Ali Razmjoo, a naval commander of the Revolutionary Guards was quoted by Reuters as saying. "By using modern systems, no activities and threats by the enemies in the Persian Gulf would be hidden from us."

This is not an entirely idle threat. The Gulf is teeming with international shipping – a lot of supertankers – not to mention scores of U.S. Navy ships in battle formation. A shore-to-ship missile that Iran supplied Hizbullah scored a direct hit on an Israel Navy missile boat during last summer's war, killing four sailors.

 

Of course, a Revolutionary Guards missile attack on a U.S. warship would no doubt result in a devastating counterattack – but it still could be costly.

 

The Guards' reaction to news of its impending reclassification by Washington was somewhat strange. The Teheran daily Kayhan quoted Guards leader Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi saying he could understand Washington's anger at the force because of its "leverage" against the U.S.

 

"America will receive a heavier punch from the guards in the future," he said. "We will never remain silent in the face of U.S. pressure and we will use our leverage against them."

 

Although Teheran has denied it, the U.S. has ample proof the Iranians are behind much of the killing of American soldiers in Iraq, from supplying sophisticated bomb-making material for the IEDs that have caused hundreds of casualties in recent months to infiltrating fighters.

 

The "leverage" Safavi refers to is apparently the introduction of Revolutionary Guards troops into the fighting against American forces trying to keep the peace. Designating the Guards as a terrorist organization would be the first time the US put a military force of a sovereign government on the same list with al-Qaida, Hamas, and Hizbullah.

 

Iran's Revolutionary Guards is a select force of some 200,000 members that is separate from the country's regular military. It has its own ground, naval, and air divisions. According to the U.S. Army, some of them are definitely up to no good in Iraq.

 

About 50 Guards members are believed to be in southern Iraq training Shi'ite militias to use mortars and rockets, Maj.-Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of U.S. forces south of Baghdad, told reporters on Sunday.

 

"We are concerned primarily about the training of Shi'ite extremists. We think there are about 50 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards," Lynch said. He noted that rocket attacks were becoming "more accurate and more effective" due to the Iranians.

 

Besides its direct military threat to the ongoing conflict in Iraq, it is important to keep in mind the role the Revolutionary Guards plays in fundamentalist Islamic Iran. Its official name is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and as such it is the standard bearer of the so-called Islamic Revolution. It is both a military and an ideological force, as well as a prominent element in Iran's economy. A terrorist designation would enable the US to move against its many assets.

 

Today's Iran is less a theological regime than a military dictatorship, and the Guards dominates political, economic, and cultural life, while protecting the ayatollahs and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from opposition at home. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and has exploited his control over the Guards to consolidate his rule. Ahmadinejad is just one of the former Guards commanders he has elevated to a top political position.