Iran condemns Costa Rica over IRGC designation
Tehran has strongly condemned Costa Rica’s decision to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), saying the “illegal move” amounts to complicity in what Iranian officials describe as ongoing crimes by the United States and Israel against Iran and other countries.
Zahra Ershadi, Assistant to the Foreign Minister and Director General for the Americas, denounced the Latin American nation’s “offensive” and “unjust” accusations against Iran’s armed forces, News.Az reports, citing Iran’s English-language Press TV.
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Costa Rica announced on Thursday that it had designated the IRGC, as well as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Ansarullah movement, as terrorist organisations.
“Costa Rica’s action in labelling this national institution amounts to appeasement in the face of lawbreaking and complicity in the crimes committed by the US and the Zionist regime,” Ershadi said.
According to Press TV, the move comes against the backdrop of what it described as an unprovoked military attack launched by Washington and Tel Aviv against Iran on 28 February, amid indirect nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington. The report said the attacks resulted in the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several high-ranking military commanders.
Ershadi said the designation was made “while the Islamic Republic of Iran is under illegal military attack by the US and the genocidal Israeli regime, and the IRGC is defending the country’s existence on behalf of the great Iranian nation”.
She added that the decision defies international law and diplomatic norms and appears to have been taken under “indoctrination and pressure” from the United States and Israel.
Such a move, the senior diplomat warned, “creates a dangerous precedent in intergovernmental relations and entails the international responsibility of the Costa Rican government”.
Pointing to the IRGC’s constitutional status as a pillar of Iran’s national security, Ershadi also criticised what she described as US pressure on other countries to follow suit.
“The despicable campaign of the US and the Zionist regime to force countries to label Iran’s powerful armed forces will have no impact on the determination of the Guards to defend Iran’s existence and protect the country’s national security,” she said.
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