Iran’s Parliament Designates All US Forces As ‘Terrorists’

Iran’s parliament has unanimously passed a bill designating the United States’ forces as “terrorists” over the assassination of top military commander Qassem Soleimani in an air attack in Iraq last week.

Recall Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) foreign operations arm Quds Force, was killed in a US drone attack outside Baghdad airport on Friday, ratcheting up tensions between the arch-foes.

In the newly adopted bill, all US forces and employees of the Pentagon and affiliated organisations, agents and commanders and those who ordered the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the popular head of the Revolutionary Guards’ were designated as “terrorists”.

The parliament said, “Any aid to these forces, including military, intelligence, financial, technical, service or logistical, will be considered as cooperation in a terrorist act.”

The Iranian lawmakers also voted to bolster by €200 million, the coffers of the Quds Force – the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that was headed by Soleimani.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, also said that the blackisting came after the US designated its Revolutionary Guards a “terrorist organisation”.