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Iranian parliament approves bill declaring all US military forces as ‘terrorist’

Iranian parliament has approved a bill that labels all US military forces as terrorist.

The legislation is a step further after Iranian lawmakers last week approved a bill labelling US troops in the Mideast as terrorist, a day after the US terrorism designation for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard came into effect.

Recently, The United States designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign “terrorist” organisation, an unprecedented declaration against a foreign government that may prompt retaliation and make it harder for American diplomats and military officers to work with allies in the region.

It is the first time that the US has designated an entity of another government as a “terrorist” organization, placing a group with vast economic resources that answers only to Iran’s supreme leader in the same category as al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

The report by the semi-official ISNA news agency says 173 out of 215 lawmakers at the session voted for the bill on Tuesday. The bill also demands the Iranian government take unspecified action against other governments that formally back the US designation.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel have all supported the Trump administration’s designation.

The US on Monday said it will no longer exempt any countries from US sanctions if they continue to buy Iranian oil.

After the deceleration, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani  said that the United States was the real “leader of world terrorism”. “Who are you to label revolutionary institutions as terrorists?” Rouhani asked in a speech broadcast live by state television.

“You want to use terrorist groups as tools against the nations of the region… you are the leader of world terrorism,” he said.

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