Iran FM proposes terrorist blacklisting of US forces in West Asia
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has proposed that the country’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) should add American forces in West Asia, known as the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), to its list of terrorist groups in the Islamic Republic.
Zarif made the proposal in a Monday letter to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who also chairs the SNSC, shortly after US President Donald Trump designated Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization.
"The IRGC is the Iranian government’s primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign," Trump said in a statement.
In his letter to Rouhani, the top Iranian diplomat said given overt and covert support of US military forces in the region for terrorist groups and their direct involvement in terrorist acts, the SNSC should designate American forces as terrorists based on a law titled "Countering America’s Human Rights Violation and Adventurous and Terrorist Actions” passed by the Iranian Parliament in 2017.
In August 2017, Iran's lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a motion in response to US sanctions, voting to boost spending on Tehran's missile program and the IRGC’s defense mechanism.
In a session, 240 lawmakers voted for the bill, with only one abstention, to confront America's terrorist and adventurous acts in the region.
The chief commander of the IRGC warned on Sunday that the elite force will put reciprocal action against the US forces on its agenda if Washington labels it as a “terrorist organization.”
"If the Americans make such a silly move and endanger our national security, we will implement and put reciprocal measures on our agenda based on the policies of Iran's Islamic establishment," Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said.
Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi also said on Monday that the recent decision by the United States to put the IRGC on its blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations is doomed to fail like all other mischievous acts previously taken by the US against the Islamic Republic.
“A country, which has no other track records but arming, supporting and harboring terrorist groups, considers an official armed force of another country that has always been a pioneer in helping people and defending the Islamic movements, as [a] terrorist [organization],” Raeisi said.
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