Iran vows to treat CENTCOM, affiliates as ‘terrorists’

ANKARA

The Iranian military will henceforth treat U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and affiliated forces as “terrorist organizations”, Iran’s General Staff announced Tuesday.

The announcement comes one day after Iran's National Security Council officially designated CENTCOM as a “terrorist organization”.

The move came in response to Washington’s decision only hours earlier to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps as a “foreign terrorist group”.

In a Tuesday statement, Iran’s General Staff accused Washington of protecting Israel and destabilizing the region by “supporting terrorists”.

“The U.S. has contributed to instability in several parts of the world by supporting terrorist groups -- overtly and covertly -- such as Daesh, Al-Qaedah and the Al-Nusra Front,” the statement read.

The General Staff went on to accuse the U.S. of using these groups to destabilize several countries, including Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan.