The US Is Right to Crack Down on Iran and the Revolutionary Guard Corps
The US Is Right to Crack Down on Iran and the Revolutionary Guard Corps
In an unprecedented move earlier this month, the United States designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization. The shift in policy didn’t come a minute too soon — especially because the territorial expansion of Iran and its allies in the Middle East has brought the regime closer to Israel’s borders than ever before.
The IRGC has long served as Tehran’s driving vehicle for domestic oppression and the imposition of regional terrorism. On Sunday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameneiappointed a new chief commander of the IRGC — Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami. He will be replacing Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, who has led the force since 2007. Salami is known for his hard-line rhetoric, and was recently quoted as saying that Iran will “break America, Israel, and their partners and allies.”
In no other country has the power of the IRGC and its overseas operations unit, the Quds Force, been so clearly felt as in Syria. Since the inception of the civil war there in 2011, Iran has been building up a permanent military presence in the country under the auspices of aiding the embattled Assad regime. From the beginning, Iran’s plan has been to turn Syria into a front-line post against Israeli and Western interests, and to maintain supply lines for a land bridge extending across Iraq and Syria, and into Lebanon.
Now that Assad’s position has stabilized, Iran appears to be aiming for more than just regime survival. In February, Salami said that Iran will fight Israel, the United States, and Arab allies “on the global level, not just in one spot.” He vowed that Tehran’s “war is not a local war. We have plans to defeat the world powers.”
Iran Briefing | News Press Focus on Human Rights Violation by IRGC, Iran Human Rights