The United States’ increasingly aggressive approaches towards Iran came to a head last night as the administration of US President Donald Trump designated the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization through an official statement.
In light of this development, Mehr News Agency reached to a senior member of Turkey’s Republican People's Party (CHP), Osman Faruk logoglu, who believes that "brandishing IRGC as a terrorist group is essentially an act of terror itself.”
He called the move as “unprecedented, unlawful and devoid of any credibility or legitimacy,” adding that the "step is supposedly designed to increase the pressure on Iran and opens a new frontier beyond the realm of economic sanctions.”
“Trump continues to stoke the fires of tension and conflict in the region,” the Turkish diplomat stressed, adding “this step will only serve to entrench the determination of the Iranian people to resist US efforts to force Iran into submission.”
About the consequences of this move, Logoglu maintained that an immediate one was the “reported response from Iran, declaring, in turn, the US armed forces a terrorist organization.”
He went on to add, “the broader danger is that these reciprocal and counter-productive steps will only escalate tensions in the MENA and Persian Gulf, and vastly raise the chances of armed encounters between the two sides.”
Any such event, he went on to note, “if and when it occurs, would be extremely difficult to keep from leading to a wider military confrontation between the two adversaries.”
“This US move on IRGC follows in the footsteps of President Trump's decisions on Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, all presumably serving Israeli interests just as much as American interests,” said Logoglu, adding, however, that “this is a misconception because all three steps potentially pave the way for new conflicts while relegating the prospects of peace and security in the region into a very distant future.”
“By remaining calm and calibrated, I believe Iran will defeat American designs and provocations to subjugate it,” he concluded.
Interview by: Payman Yazdani