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 (Reuters) - Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected the United States’ designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization, saying on Tuesday the Guards had confronted enemies at home and abroad, state TV reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump designated Iran’s Guards a foreign terrorist organization on Monday -- an unprecedented step that will raise tensions in the Middle East.

“Our Sepah (the Guards) is in the frontline of confronting enemies of our (1979 Islamic) revolution and has always defended the country ... America has failed to block our advancements,” Khamenei told a group of members of the Guards.