A Never-Ending American Hostility Towards Iran, Trump to Designate IRGC as Terrorist Org.
by USJ Staff
From the day when Iranian people chose to say NO to the dictatorship of the westernized Shah, the United States has spared no efforts to topple the Islamic Republic in one way or another. Government after government, American policy towards Iran has remain unchanged, united in one goal, to bring back the influence they once had on Iran in the Shah era. But years of plotting, saying, and acting against Iran has brought no results for policy makers in Washington.
Under the new hardliner Republican president, however, the American hostility towards Iran is more apparent, In May last year, U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—the Iran nuclear deal—even though Iran was not in violation of it, with the IAEA reports proving Iran's compliance to the nuclear deal in several times. After the withdrawal of the US, unjust crippling sanctions came back to target Iranian people, whom in the eyes of Trump are a terrorist nation!
And now, in its latest show of animosity towards Iran, Donald Trump on this Monday branded Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization
"The IRGC is the Iranian government's primary means of directing and implementing its global terrorist campaign," Trump said in a statement on Monday.
The move was condemned by Iran as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said a day later on Tuesday that the United States was the real "leader of world terrorism."
"Who are you to label revolutionary institutions as terrorists? You want to use terrorist groups as tools against the nations of the region… you are the leader of world terrorism. Who is propagating and encouraging terrorism in today's world? Who wanted to use ISIS (the Islamic State group) as a tool?" Rouhani asked in his public speech Tuesday.
Mr. Rouhani also referred to the downing of Iran Air Flight 655 in July 1988 by missiles fired from the US naval ship the USS Vincennes to prove Washington hostile approach to Iran as a having a long history.
"You have done everything imaginable. Which force was it that shot down our civil airliner in the waters of the Persian Gulf? You wanted to tell the Iranian nation that we do not have any red lines, you wanted to say that we also kill children, you wanted to say that we also kill women. Even now America is hiding the heads of ISIS, even now they are not prepared to tell the regional governments where the heads of ISIS are hiding." Rouhani added.
Also in reaction to the unfriendly act by the Trump administration in designating The IRGC as a terrorist organization, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi "The U.S. military bases and their military forces in the region will be considered terrorist bases and terrorist forces that will be dealt with and confronted accordingly," told Iranian state TV, calling the U.S. decision "a major strategic mistake."
Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, in turn announced U.S. military forces as a "terrorist organization,"
The thing is that critics believe Trump's announcement was more of a political show than real action and the designation did not mean the U.S. military would start treating the IRGC like al Qaeda, Islamic State or other militants that it can target at will.
Some US officials, including Jason Blazakis, a former State Department official who oversaw the process for labeling foreign terrorist organizations, approved the view by saying that they believe the IRGC designation as a terrorist organization is done for purely symbolic and domestic political reasons that could have deadly consequences for U.S. troops.
Donald Trump, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, IRGC, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Jason Blazakis, JCPOA
About the Author / USJ Staff
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