Iran Parliament Votes to Blacklist US CENTCOM as Terrorists

n a 204-2 vote, Iran’s parliament approved a bill Tuesday that would add US Central Command (CENTCOM) to the government’s terrorist blacklist. The bill calls on the Iranian government to “act firmly” in response to US terrorist actions, and use all legal, political, and diplomatic means necessary.

Since vote formalizes a move that the Iranian government announced last week. The move is intended to be a direct response to the US government added the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to the US list of foreign terrorist organizations. Both announcement and final vote followed similar US measures.

As with the US move, it isn’t clear how Iran’s bill will actually impact anything, as the US and Iran are already on extremely poor terms, and adding them to one another’s terrorist list is just an excuse for more public lashing of one another in the court of public opinion.

Slapping the terror label on parts of another nation’s military was virtually unheard of until these moves by the US and Iran. Since this is uncharted waters, it is likely to have some unforeseen consequences, complicating interactions with the nations’ mutual allies.