Iran House okays Bill calling US armed forces 'terrorists'

Tehran: Iranian media say the parliament has approved a bill that labels all US military forces as terrorist.

The legislation is a step further after Iranian lawmakers last week approved a bill labelling US troops in the Mideast as terrorist, a day after the US terrorism designation for Iran's Revolutionary Guard came into effect.

The report by the semi-official ISNA news agency says 173 out of 215 lawmakers at the session voted for the bill on Tuesday.

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

The US on Monday said it will no longer exempt any countries from US sanctions if they continue to buy Iranian oil.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday called for international pressure to be kept up on Tehran after a US decision to end sanction exemptions for Iran's oil customers.

The latest US move was a "necessary step" to hold Iran responsible for its "destabilising policies and support for terrorism", Saudi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

He added the kingdom was keen on "the need for continued international efforts to (compel) the Iranian regime to abide by international laws and stop interfering in other countries' internal affairs".

The White House on Monday announced it will no longer grant reprieves from unilateral US sanctions on Tehran, in order to "bring Iran's oil exports to zero". Eight countries intially given six-month waivers include China, India and Turkey.

Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said Riyadh was committed to "stabilise" the oil market.

"The kingdom will coordinate with other oil producing countries to ensure adequate supplies to consumers," he said on Monday.

The White House has said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — close US allies — would work to make up the difference in oil to ensure that global markets are not rocked.

US President Donald Trump has adopted a hawkish stance to Saudi's regional rival Iran, last year pulling out of a landmark nuclear deal Tehran agreed with world powers and imposing sanctions.

Earlier in the week, Iran and Pakistan will set up a joint border "reaction force" following deadly attacks on their frontier, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced Monday after talks with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.

"We agreed to create a joint rapid reaction force at the borders for combatting terrorism," Rouhani told a joint news conference, following months of increased tensions over attacks on both sides of the frontier.

The border skirts the volatile southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchistan which has been the scene of frequent attacks on Iran's security forces.

Khan's visit to Iran, the first since he took office last year, comes after gunmen who Islamabad says were based in Iran killed 14 members of Pakistan's security forces last week in its own Balochistan province.

"The security chief will sit down with his counterpart here and discuss (security) cooperation," Khan said, although no details were given on the joint force. "We trust that both countries will not have terrorist activities from their soil ... We will not allow any damage to your country from our soil," said the Pakistani premier who started a two-day visit on Sunday.

In March, Rouhani demanded Pakistan act "decisively against anti-Iranian terrorists", following a February 13 attack that killed 27 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards in Sistan-Baluchistan.

Iran has said a Pakistani suicide bomber was behind the attack, claimed by the Sunni jihadist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), which Tehran says operates mostly out of bases in Pakistan.