By Xinhua
Tehran : Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Sunday that he supported the recent Majlis (parliament) statement to brand the U.S. army and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as terrorist groups.
“Terrorist is a proper label for the military and security forces of the United States,” Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters at his weekly press conference.
When asked about the recent approval of the U.S. House of Representative which put the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)on the list of terrorist organizations, Hosseini said “placing the armed forces of the UN member states on the list of terrorist groups is unprecedented.”
Iranian lawmakers on Saturday branded the U.S. troops and the CIA as terrorist groups, apparently a sharp reaction tit-for-tat over the decisions of their U.S. counterparts.
More than 200 Iranian MPs said in a statement that “the U.S. army and the CIA themselves are terrorists since they support terrorism.”
“They support Israel’s state terrorism in its crackdown on Palestinian and Lebanese people, trained al-Qaida and Taliban, and established secret prisons in Europe, torture prisoners in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib,” the MPs said.
They also demanded the United Nations to intervene in the “global problem of U.S. prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and secret jails in other countries.”
The statement was released just three days after the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives called on the U.S. State Department to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.
Washington has accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program. Iran denied the U.S. charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.