Iran FM briefs MPs behind closed doors on Trump threats against JCPOA

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has attended a parliamentary session to brief the lawmakers on a range of issues, including recent US threats against the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers.

The closed-door meeting on Tuesday mainly focused on three issues, including the nuclear deal and the recent Kurdish secession referendum in northern Iraq as well as the Syria crisis, Iranian official news agencies cited the lawmakers at the session as saying.

Zarif was quoted by the lawmakers as saying during the session that Iran would give “a more crushing response” if the US takes any steps against the deal.

The briefing session comes as US President Donald Trump is reportedly expected to announce in his planned October 15 speech that he will not certify the nuclear agreement reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in 2015. Moreover, he plans to designate the the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. 

On Tuesday, a key Iranian parliamentary body said the IRGC reserves the right to treat US military forces as terrorists if Washington blacklists the elite force.

In a Tuesday statement, the Iranian Majlis (parliament) Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy slammed the possible designation by the Trump administration against the IRGC as “idiotic” and “hideous” and noted, “The IRGC is entitled to treat the US forces the same way it treats terrorist groups” in case the reports of such a blacklisting turn out to be true.

The statement further said the US and Israel have been enraged over IRGC’s significant role in protecting Iran as well as regional security over the past decades.

“In recent years, the IRGC has played a valuable part in restoring security to Iraq and Syria and fighting terrorist groups, particularly Daesh, which are US lackeys in the world. If it was not for such a role, this strategic region would have faced worrying crises,” it said.

The parliamentary committee said it would support any retaliatory measure by the IRGC against US military forces under the Iranian law on countering US adventurist and terrorist activities in the region.

Trump’s potential plan against the IRGC has already faced international opposition, with Russia and France warning against the ramifications of such a decision.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned that Tehran would take reciprocal measures against a potential “strategic mistake” by Trump to blacklist the IRGC.

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• Iran to reciprocate US moves against IRGC

 “If American officials make such a strategic mistake, the Islamic Republic of Iran will take a reciprocal measure,” Zarif said, adding, “Some measures have been thought out in this regard and will be taken at the appropriate time.”

The IRGC chief commander, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, has also said that Iran would treat US troops like Daesh terrorists if the IRGC was designated as a terrorist organization by the US.

Trump’s efforts to blacklist the IRGC come as the advisors of the elite force are currently assisting Iraqi and Syrian forces in their anti-terrorism campaign against Daesh Takfiri militants and other terrorist groups in both countries.

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