Middle East shenanigans | Editorial

Tehran has responded to the Trump administration’s designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation in kind. Now all US military troops in the Middle East have been labelled terrorists by Iran. As worrying as this development is, things could have been worse. Some Iranian lawmakers wanted to label the entirety of the US Army — not just those deployed in the region — as terrorists.
This is a fiasco that could have been avoided. The US already considers Iran a state-sponsor of terror and has substantial sanctions on it as well. It is likely that the Trump administration wanted to make the penalties for dealing with the IRGC and providing it with material support heavier. Therefore, the countries most likely to be affected by the US’s move apart from Iran are Iraq and Lebanon.
What’s curious is that the most influential foreign ministries on the globe have kept oddly quiet about the entire affair. While Saudi Arabia and Israel have obviously endorsed the US’s decision, nothing has been said about either country’s move by the foreign ministries of Russia or China. Even Federicia Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief has not said anything.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mehdi, however, has expressed serious alarm. He even declared a day after the Trump administration announced its decision that he had tried to stop Washington from making this move. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Mehdi has a front row seat to the conflict between Iran and the US, much of which is being fought on Iraqi soil. And this is the tragedy. Ultimately, the US’s designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation will not deter Tehran from following its strategic objectives, nor will Iran’s similar designation of US troops. All this farce will achieve is increasing the suffering of the people of the Middle East. Along the way, somewhere the word “terrorism” will also lose its meaning, if it ever had one in the first place that is.
 
 
Source : https://dailytimes.com.pk/377897/middle-east-shenanigans/?fbclid=IwAR3fbnDf6BoxEfr-i0s3wmeqwRJ7Tp28r8H8r0etAMFFQrpoxEykEdepAqk

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