Iran lawmakers wear uniform to support IRGC

Tehran, April 9, IRNA – All members of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) attended the Tuesday Majlis session wearing the official uniform of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) in a symbolic move to express their support for the military body which is part of Iran's armed forces but is designated by the US as a terrorist group. On Monday, the US, in an unwise move designated Iran's 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. In reaction to the US designation, Iran’s Ambassador to London Hamid Baeedinejad said the US move against IRGC at a time when the Iranian military body is helping the flood-hit people with all in power is a gift to Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to assist him in the elections. Also, 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 terrorist groups' list. In a related development, Chairman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh announced on April 8 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). According to the New York-based international daily newspaper The Wall Street Journal, the move was designed as 'a step that would vastly escalate the American pressure campaign against Tehran, but which has divided the US officials'. 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 IRGC as part of the Iranian military forces. Majlis through its statement described IRGC as one of the great achievements gained after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish