Russian Official: Iran Bill Logical Response to US

A Russian official described a bill passed by the Iranian Parliament on Sunday in response to recent US sanctions as logical. “This is quite logical. This is what happens when one country [the US] believes it may do anything, and others nothing,” Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote on Facebook on Sunday. “The world may be stable only on the basis of equal rights of the countries,” he was quoted as writing by TASS. On Sunday, Iranian lawmakers voted for the bill to confront “America’s terrorist and adventurous actions” in the region. The bill allows for a boost in spending on Tehran’s missile program and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ defense activities. It would require Iran’s government and armed forces to draw up a strategy to counter US violations of human rights across the world and to support Iranian bodies and individuals affected by US sanctions. It would allocate over $260 million each to Iran’s ballistic missile program and the Quds Force, the IRGC’s external arm, which has sent military advisors to Iraq and Syria to fight terrorists.