An AFP interview, reposted on a blog, with Mohsen Sazegara, a co-founder of the Revolutionary Guards and a Harvard research fellow. He warns that a US terrorist designation of the Guards would raise tensions, push the two countries toward military confrontation and could provoke backlash in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon without changing the regime. He describes the Guards as party, army, security service and business empire, with the Quds Force reporting directly to Khamenei. He says US banking sanctions work better, negotiations need credible pressure, and sanctions should be tied to human rights in a Helsinki-style process.