Iran fires back at Trump declaring US ‘state sponsor of terror’ amid chants of ‘death to America’

Tehran’s countermoves against President Trump’s declaration also included designating U.S. troops in the region as terrorists.

By World Israel News Staff

Iran is countering U.S. President Donald Trump’s designation of its Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization with its own declaration that the U.S. is a “state sponsor of terrorism” and that American forces in the region are “terrorist groups,” says Al-Jazeera, citing Iranian state media.

Iran also argues that the U.S. decision is illegal.

Soon after Mr. Trump’s announcement on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sent a protest note to the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which looks after U.S. interests in Iran, and urged President Hassan Rouhani to put American forces deployed in the region on Tehran’s list of terror groups, according to Iranian’s Foreign Ministry.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council immediately responded by designating the U.S. regional command and all its forces as terrorists, and labeling the U.S. a “supporter of terrorism.”

Referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection bid in Tuesday’s Knesset election, Zarif said that Mr. Trump’s declaration was another “misguided election-eve gift to Netanyahu.”

Iranian lawmakers chanted “Death to America while wearing the uniform of the guards in a show of solidarity as they convened in an open parliamentary session on Tuesday to mark the National Day of the Revolutionary Guards, the semi-official Fars news agency reports. This year it coincides with the April 9 holiday known as Nuclear Day.

In a speech marking Nuclear Day, Mr. Rouhani warned U.S. leaders: “I am telling you, if you pressure us, we will mass produce IR8 advanced centrifuges,” Rouhani said.

The Iranian president unveiled dozens of unspecified “achievements” in nuclear technology, something he does every year. This time he touted that beginning of an installation of a chain of advanced centrifuges at the uranium enrichment facility in the central town of Natanz as well as an addition at the Fordo underground facility.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.