Iran condemns US House over Guards blacklisting

[TexasLawyer]

Source: AFP

Iran condemns US House over Guards blacklisting

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran angrily condemned on Wednesday as "worthless and invalid" a vote by the US House of Representatives branding its elite Revolutionary Guards force as a terrorist organization. The vote came a month after it emerged that the administration of President George W. Bush was considering blacklisting the Guards, the Islamic republic's ideological army and one of its key institutions.

"Branding the armed forces of a UN member as a terrorist group is a strange and unprecedented act. It is worthless and invalid," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in an angry statement. "These kinds of ill-considered decisions and baseless acts do not help in implementing peace and security in the world."

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Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, in a rare public comment on foreign policy, said the vote showed Iran needed to be alert in the current situation.

"The bill should make all of us alert since we are confronted with threats and dangers," he said, according to the Mehr and ISNA news agencies. "I think that with Gods's help and with national solidarity we will neutralise these threats but we have to be alert," he added.



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