TEHRAN (IRNA) -- Some 211 members of parliament (MPs) on Wednesday castigated the U.S. attempt to label the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as terrorist.

Member of Majlis Presiding Board Jahanbakhsh Mohebbi read out a statement to that effect.
""The IRGC is a sacred tree whose sapling was planted by the late Imam Khomeini,"" the statement said making a reference to remarks by the late Imam Khomeini that ""Iran could not longer exist in absence of the IRGC.""
The statement said, ""The IRGC has become a thorn in the eyes of enemies of Islam and they developed animosity with the Iranian defense force to the extent that they label it as terrorist.""
""It is not surprising on the part of the U.S., whose hands are stained with bloods of hundreds of innocent people killed by its executives every day around the world, to label the IRGC. The nation is proud of the IRGC for safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity.""
The Iranian MPs said that the world public opinion knows very well who the terrorist is.
Posing several questions, the MPs said that the world public opinion is aware that U.S. army was shamefully involved in running the Guantanamo Bay prison, Abu Ghraib, tens of secret prisons in Europe and the Middle East, carrying out indiscriminate bombardment of Iraq and Afghanistan during which several hundred people are killed every day.
The statement said that the world people know well that the U.S. army is providing the Zionist regime with every possible means to enable it to kill 10,000 Palestinians during systematic genocide in the occupied territories.
""So, who should be labeled as terrorist?""
""The U.S. army is the only one in the world which dropped atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing innocent people. The U.S. army trained al-Qaeda during occupation of the former Soviet Union and escalated terrorism and violence across the world. So, who should be labeled as terrorist?""
The statement said that the U.S. administration and President Bush should know that the Iranian nation regards any affront to the IRGC as disrespect to the Iranian nation which will stir hatred of the U.S. administration.
The parliament said that the IRGC is a constitutional defense force and such a conspiracy will further strengthen national solidarity