‘Complicity in US crimes’: Iran condemns Costa Rica’s move to designate IRGC

Tehran has strongly condemned Costa Rica's decision to designate the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), noting that the illegal move amounts to complicity in the ongoing crimes committed by the US 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 Iranian armed forces.

The Latin American country announced on Thursday that it had designated IRGC, as well as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Ansarullah resistance groups as terrorist organizations. 

"Costa Rica's action in labeling 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 stated.

The move comes against the backdrop of an unprovoked military aggression initiated by Washington and Tel Aviv against Iran on February 28 in the midst of indirect nuclear negotiations between Iran and the US. The illegal attacks resulted in the assassination of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and several high-ranking military commanders.

Ershadi noted that the designation occurred "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."

The decision, she said, defies both international law and diplomatic custom, and appears to have been taken under the "indoctrination and pressure" of the US and the Israeli regime. 

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 legitimacy as a sovereign pillar of Iran's national security, Ershadi denounced Washington's 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 homeland's Guards to defend Iran's existence and protect the country's national security," she asserted.

Since the unprovoked February 28 campaign began, the Iranian Armed Forces, including the IRGC, have launched 100 waves of retaliatory missile and drone operations against US interests across West Asia and Israeli positions in the occupied territories. 

Iran has maintained a strict reciprocal policy regarding the labeling of its military. According to a double-urgency bill ratified by the Iranian Parliament on April 16, 2019, the military of any country that designates the IRGC as a terrorist organization will be designated as such by Tehran in a tit-for-tat move.

The policy has already been actively applied to the US Central Command (CENTCOM) and military forces of several European nations, designated by Iran as terrorist entities.

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