Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu criticized US recent act against the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) which is the official military organization of Iran.
According to Turkish media ‘Anadolu Agency’, Çavuşoğlu told
‘NTV’ that Turkey does not accept designating the name of an official military
body as terrorist organization, IRNA reported.
He added that US act will make Iran take harsher position.
Earlier in a joint press conference with his Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin
Abdulrahman Al Thani on Tuesday, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that the two countries
cannot accept the US unilateral decision to add the IRGC to the terrorist
group, according to Sputnik.
Çavuşoğlu noted that no country can call another country’s military forces a
terrorist organization.
In an unwise move on Monday, US President Donald Trump labeled the IRGC which
is a part of the country’s official armed forces as a terrorist entity. ‘The
IRGC is the Iranian government’s primary means of directing and implementing
its global terrorist campaign,’ US President Donald Trump said in a statement
yesterday.
‘We will continue to increase financial pressure and raise the costs on the
Iranian regime for its support of terrorist activity until it abandons its
malign and outlaw behavior,’ Trump said.
The latest anti-Iran move of Trump was also met with fierce reactions from the
Iranian officials.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif recommended that Iran’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
organizations.
In a letter to President Hassan Rouhani, he also called for a retaliatory move
by labeling the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) as a terrorist
organization and the US government as a terrorist sponsor.
Zarif described the move as ‘another misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu”.
In a related development, Chairman of Majlis National Security and Foreign
Policy Commission Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh announced on Monday before the US
anti-IRGC decision that Iranian parliament has prepared a double-urgency bill
which will be approved in case the US takes possible measures against IRGC.
Falahatpisheh said that if it happens, Iran declares the US military forces as
a terrorist group like Daesh (ISIS).
The members of Iranian parliament at Tuesday’s session showed up in official
uniforms of IRGC to announce their support and solidarity with the forces.
To support the IRGC, 255 out of 290 Iranian lawmakers issued a statement on
April 8, stressing that the Majlis will respond reciprocally to any measure
against the IRGC as part of Iran’s military forces.
The Iranian forces in coordination with governments in Iraq and Syria have
played a military advisory role in fighting the terrorist group in both
countries. Iraq officially announced the defeat of Daesh in 2017, while Syria
has managed to retake most of the fallen areas from the terrorists thanks to
the IRGC assistance.
