Tehran

23 April 2019 22:11 IST

Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a Bill that labels all U.S. military forces as terrorist, state TV reported, a day after Washington ratcheted up pressure on Tehran by announcing that no country would any longer be exempt from U.S. sanctions if it continues to buy Iranian oil.

The Bill is a step further from the one last week, when lawmakers approved labelling just U.S. troops in West Asia as terrorist, in response to the U.S. terrorism designation for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards earlier this month.

On Monday, President Donald Trump decided to do away with waivers as part of the administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran. Iran’s Foreign Ministry promptly brushed off Mr. Trump’s move to stop the oil waivers, saying the Islamic Republic “basically has not seen and does not see any worth and validity for the waivers.”

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Parliamentary vote

On Tuesday, 173 out of 215 lawmakers at the Parliament session in Tehran voted for the new Bill. Only four voted against while the rest abstained; the chamber has 290 seats. The Bill confirms Iran’s earlier label of the U.S. Central Command and all its forces as terrorist.

The Bill also demands the Iranian government take unspecified action against other governments that formally back the U.S. designation. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel have all supported the Trump administration’s designation.