The historic decision on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) marks the first time the U.S. has designated a branch of another country's military as a terrorist organization. The IRGC is a branch of Iran's Armed Forces founded after Iran’s 1979 Revolution on April 22, 1979 by order of Ayatollah Khomeini. Whereas the regular military defends Iran's borders and maintains internal order, according to the Iranian constitution, the IRGC is intended to protect the country's Islamic Republic system. The Revolutionary Guards state that their role in protecting the Islamic system is preventing foreign interference as well as coups by the military or "deviant movements". This group has now been labelled as a terrorist organization by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United States.