Iran approves bill labeling US military, Pentagon terrorist organizations

Iran’s parliament reportedly passed legislation on Tuesday designating the U.S. military and the Pentagon as terrorist organizations after the drone strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani last week in Baghdad.

The legislation was approved unanimously by 223 lawmakers, Iranian state media reported, according to USA Today. The move comes after the country’s Supreme National Security Council designated U.S. Central Command, the U.S. military’s Middle East command unit, a terrorist group last year.

Iranian lawmakers also supported a motion dedicating $220 million to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’s Quds Force, the newspaper reported. Soleimani was the leader of the elite military branch, which managed Tehran’s ties to armed groups outside of Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also alleged in a new interview with CNN that President Trump “has no respect for international law and is prepared to commit war crimes” after the president threatened to attack Iranian cultural sites as tensions between Tehran and Washington have escalated. The U.S. denied a visa to Zarif that would have allowed him to attend a United Nations meeting Thursday in New York City.

And the leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Hossein Salami, threatened in a speech to thousands that Iran would “set ablaze” places that are supported by the U.S. Supporters chanted “death to Israel” as the leader threatened to attack U.S. troops.

The developments came as dozens of people reportedly died and almost 200 were injured in a stampede Tuesday at a funeral procession for Soleimani in Kerman, the hometown of the general, according to The Associated Press.