US: Iran's Revolutionary Guards are 'terrorists', but who are they?

RT
Mon, 08 Apr 2019 23:24 UTC

© AFP

Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) march during the annual military parade marking the start of Iran-Iraq war.

The US has for the first time ever designated an official foreign military institution as a terrorist organization. RT looks at Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite and powerful military force.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was formed shortly after the Islamic Revolution back in 1979, when US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran was overthrown. Soon the country became an Islamic Republic under the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The Corps was created out of several paramilitary forces loyal to the new government - while the loyalty of the standing army was under question back then. The IRGC was tasked with protection of the gains of the Revolution itself, while the Army was entrusted with preserving the country's territorial integrity and independence.

However, the IRGC was soon forced to act as a regular army, following the Iraqi invasion in 1980. The IRGC had to substitute for dwindling numbers of the regular army, which had been plagued by desertions - and political purges - after the Revolution. Eventually, the IRGC grew its own aerospace (AFAGIR) and naval (NEDSA) forces, duplicating many of the responsibilities of Iran's regular military.

© REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl

A member of Iran's Revolutionary guard stands guard in a U.S. helicopter CH-53 Sea Stallion that crashed in Iran in 1980, in Tehran.

Branches of the Guard Corps

The secretive, elite-within-elite branch of the IRGC - called the Quds Force - is a product of the Iran-Iraq war. The branch was created as a Special Forces unit within the IRGC, yet it promptly outgrew this role, becoming an expeditionary branch tasked with operations abroad and unconventional warfare.

In 2009, the IRGC grew a whole Intelligence Organization of its own as well, which appears to be focused more on the domestic level.

© AFP/HO/KHAMENEI.IR

The Quds Force commander Major General Qassem Suleimani.

The Iran-Iraq war also produced another paramilitary group - Basij volunteer militia. The militia was ultimately incorporated into the IRGC and currently serves as an auxiliary force, as well as a trained mobilization reserve. Basij made the headlines this February, when its base in the southeast of the country came under a "terrorist attack."

IRGC's land, air and naval forces regularly stage exercises of their own, or in cooperation with the regular army. AFAGIR also operates Iran's ballistic missiles.

One of the responsibilities of NEDSA is patrolling the Straits of Hormuz, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean. The IRGC naval force has faced off with US Navy ships in the Gulf more than once, most recently in 2016, capturing nine US sailors whose boats had strayed into Iran's territorial waters.

Why did US sanction them?

Washington claims that the "IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft," and serves as the main tool of Tehran in "its global terrorist campaign." This includes the supposedly "destabilizing" activities of Iran - both confirmed, like the continuous support of Syria's legitimate government, and alleged ones - like the rumored ties with the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

© AFP/FARS NEWS/MEHDI MARIZAD

Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, Mohammad Ali Jafari (C), monitors maneuvers by the guards during ground, air and naval drills near the Strait of Hormuz on April 24, 2010.

The IRGC is also in charge of the rapidly growing Iranian missile forces, whose development Washington criticized while trying to drag the subject into the discussions of the country's nuclear program. Iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful and the ballistic missiles serve solely defensive purposes.

© AFP/Sepah News

A new missile, unveiled by Iran's Revolutionary Guards on February , 2019.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has so far said Tehran is complying with the 2015 nuclear agreement, even after the Trump administration pulled out of it last year.

Comment: What goes around, comes around: US troops are now on Iran's terrorist list:

In response to Washington's decision to put Iran's Revolutionary Guards on the terrorist list, the Iranian Supreme Security Council declared the US a "terrorist government" while calling the US CENTCOM a terrorist group as well as all its affiliates a terrorist group.

The statement blamed CENTCOM for harming Iran's national security as well as ruining the lives of "innocent Iranian and non-Iranian individuals" to promote the US' "aggressive policies" in Western Asia.

The Iranian Security Council condemned the move by calling it "an illegal and dangerous action" that poses a "major threat to the regional and international peace and security as well as grossly violates the rules of international law."

Iranian president Rouhani has a few choice words for the US:

"You want to use terrorist groups as tools against the nations of the region... you are the leader of world terrorism. Even now America is hiding the heads of ISIS, even now they are not prepared to tell the regional governments where the heads of ISIS are hiding. Who are you to label revolutionary institutions as terrorists?"

Rouhani said Trump's move was a "mistake" that will unite the nation and make the Revolutionary Guards more popular among Iranians.

IRGC's top commander also had warnings for the US:

"Mr. Trump, tell your warships not to pass near the Revolutionary Guards boats," Mohsen Rezaei, a senior officer of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was quoted by the semi-official news agency ISNA.

[The] US President designated the elite Corps as a terrorist organization...to "expand the scope and scale" of pressure on Tehran. Now, the US may impose further sanctions on the IRGC, with Trump himself warning that "if you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism."

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Joe Dunford, expressed concerns about troop safety in the region. They argued that the designation could spark violence against US forces across the Middle East.