Sunday, September 30th, 2007
Iran’s parliament votes to call CIA, U.S. Army ‘terrorist’ groups
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday that he supported the recent Majlis (parliament) statement to brand the U.S. army and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as terrorist groups.
“Terrorist is a proper label for the military and security forces of the United States,” Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters at his weekly press conference.
When asked about the recent approval of the U.S. House of Representative which put the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)on the list of terrorist organizations, Hosseini said “placing the armed forces of the UN member states on the list of terrorist groups is unprecedented.”
Iranian lawmakers on Saturday branded the U.S. troops and the CIA as terrorist groups, apparently a sharp reaction tit-for-tat over the decisions of their U.S. counterparts.
More than 200 Iranian MPs said in a statement that “the U.S. army and the CIA themselves are terrorists since they support terrorism.”
“They support Israel’s state terrorism in its crackdown on Palestinian and Lebanese people, trained al-Qaida and Taliban, and established secret prisons in Europe, torture prisoners in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib,” the MPs said.
They also demanded the United Nations to intervene in the “global problem of U.S. prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and secret jails in other countries.”
The statement was released just three days after the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives called on the U.S. State Department to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.
Washington has accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program. Iran denied the U.S. charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Report from Al Jazeera:
Depleted uranium
The parliament said the two organisations were terrorists for a number of reasons.
It said they were involved in dropping nuclear bombs in Japan in World War II and used depleted uranium munitions in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq.
It also said they supported the killings of Palestinians by Israel, bombed and killed Iraqi civilians and tortured terror suspects in prisons.
The resolution urges Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s, the Iranian president, government to treat the two as terrorist organisations.
It also paves the way for the resolution to become legislation which, if ratified by the country’s constitutional watchdog, would become law.
Awaiting reaction
The government is expected to remain silent over the parliament resolution and wait for US reaction before making its decision.
On Wednesday, the US senate voted 76-22 in favour of a resolution urging the state department to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organisation.
While the proposal attracted overwhelming bipartisan support, a small group of Democrats said they feared labeling the state-run organisation a terrorist group could be interpreted as a congressional authorisation of military force in Iran.
The Bush administration had already been considering whether to blacklist an elite unit within the Revolutionary Guard, subjecting part of the vast military operation to financial sanctions.
Related links:
# Unelected President Bush claims IRAN’s top fighting unit is a terrorist outfit
# UK’s Brown won’t rule out military action in Iran
# Iranian leader accuses Bush of hate campaign
# Arabs push through nuclear vote against Israel
# Iran charges Washington with sponsoring terrorist attacks