Iran's parliament approves a bill calling the US military "terrorist"

The bill requires the final approval of Iranian constitutional control to become law [File: Mindaugas Kulbis/AP Photo]

Iran's legislators on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill calling all US military forces "terrorist" a day after Washington increased pressure on Tehran by announcing that no country would be exempted from sanctions. American he continued to buy Iranian oil.

The bill is a step closer to last week's announcement that lawmakers approved the "terrorist" status of US troops in the Middle East, which was a response to the US's designation of the Corps. Iranian guards of the revolution, considered a "terrorist group" earlier this month.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has re-imposed sanctions on Iran, including its energy sector, last November, after being withdrawn from the US. historic agreement concluded in 2015 between Iran and the world powers in the nuclear field.

The US IRGC designation – the first for a division of another government – added a layer of sanctions to the powerful paramilitary force, making US jurisdiction a crime to provide material support to the guard.

On Monday, the Trump government announced that it would not extend sanctions exemptions for Iranian oil importing countries as part of its "maximum pressure" campaign to eliminate export earnings Iranian oil. .

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A few hours before Trump's announcement, Iran reiterated its long-standing threat of closing the Strait of Ormuz if it could not use the crucial Gulf waterway, through which pbades a third of all oil traded at sea.
The US Navy has in the past accused Iranian patrol boats of harbading US warships in the waterway.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry immediately dismissed Trump's decision to end the oil waivers, claiming that Iran "has fundamentally not seen and sees no value or validity for the waivers".

On Tuesday, 173 deputies out of 215 during the parliamentary session in Tehran voted for the new bill. Only four voted against, the others abstained. the room has 290 seats.

The bill confirms the former Iranian label of the US Central Command, also known as CENTCOM, and all of its "terrorist" forces.

Any military and non-military aid, including logistics, to CENTCOM that could harm the IRGC will be considered a "terrorist" action, the semi-official ISNA news agency said.

The bill also calls on the Iranian government to take unspecified action against other governments that formally support the US designation. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel have all supported the designation of the Trump administration.

In addition, lawmakers have asked Iran's intelligence services to provide a list of all CENTCOM commanders within three months, so that the Iranian judiciary can sue them by calling them "terrorists".

The bill requires the final approval of Iranian constitutional control to become law.

Apart from the challenge that Iran has taken on, it is unclear what impact the bill could have, whether in the Gulf or elsewhere.

The IRGC has strengths and influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, and is responsible for Iranian missiles with US bases in their range.

He is responsible for Iran's ballistic missiles and nuclear programs and reports directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The force is estimated at 125,000 people, including units from the army, navy and air.

After the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, IRGC also became heavily involved in the reconstruction and extended its economic interests to a vast network of companies, ranging from oil and gas projects to construction and telecommunications.

The US State Department currently designates more than 60 organizations, including Al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), Hezbollah and many Palestinian armed groups, as "foreign terrorist organizations".

Source: aljazeera.com