A day after the US announced that they are withdrawing all waivers for
buying Iranian oil to all countries worldwide, the Iranian parliament
has passed a retaliatory bill, labeling the entire US military as a terrorist organization. The resolution calls on the government to use legal, political, and diplomatic measures to respond to the US.
This all comes a week after a pair of tit-for-tat actions between the
two nations. The US labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as
terrorists, and Iran labeled the US Central Command as terrorists.
The vote on the new bill was 173-4, with a number of abstentions. This
is likely to have little to no impact on Iranian policy, as the US
military is so hostile to Iran to begin with that there is no real
connection that would be split by the move.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif appeared to support the move, and
talked of US-imposed sanctions against Iran as “economic terrorism.”
This might complicate matters if US operators are apprehended within Iran- being held as a terrorist has far different implications than being held as a common trouble-maker. Unfortunately, this puts far more potential restrictions on our operations than our branding the IRG as terrorists. Way to go, team.
Unfortunately?
Like a child mimicking the devil…
The Iranians are of course correct, but that is no surprise to us.