Iran labels CIA 'terrorist organisation'

Iran's parliament approved a non-binding resolution today labeling the CIA and the US Army "terrorist organisations," in apparent response to a US Senate resolution seeking to give a similar designation to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The parliament cited US involvement in dropping nuclear bombs in Japan in World War II, using depleted uranium munitions in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, supporting the killings of Palestinians by Israel, bombing and killing Iraqi civilians, and torturing terror suspects in prisons.

"The aggressor US Army and the Central Intelligence Agency are terrorists and also nurture terror," said a statement by the 215 lawmakers who signed the resolution at an open session of the Iranian parliament. The session was broadcast live on state-run radio.

The resolution, which is seen as a diplomatic offensive against the US, urges Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government to treat the two as terrorist organisations. It also paves the way for the resolution to become legislation that - if ratified by the country's hardline constitutional watchdog - would become law. The government is expected to wait for US reaction before making its decision.

On Wednesday, the US Senate voted 76-22 in favor of a resolution urging the State Department to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organisation.

While the proposal attracted overwhelming bipartisan support, a small group of Democrats said they feared labeling the state-sponsored organisation a terrorist group could be interpreted as a congressional authorization of military force in Iran.