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As Iran’s illicit nuclear program continues to draw international headlines, an elite arm of the Islamic Republic’s military is striving to increase Tehran’s influence and spread terrorism across the Middle East while remaining largely under the radar.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arms, funds and trains terrorist networks from Gaza to Afghanistan.
The force also controls a large part of the Iranian economy, including a substantial portion of the country’s oil and gas industry. Because of these extensive financial interests, policymakers view the Guard as a target for sanctions designed to contain Iran.
Formed in 1979 at the birth of Iran’s Islamic revolution, the IRGC exists largely separate from and parallel to Iran’s regular army.
The Guard has a long history of terrorism, and has been implicated in the 1994 bombing of an Argentina Jewish Center and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. The IRGC was also behind the recent capture of British sailors in the Persian Gulf.
In addition to their military activities, the Guard’s commanders also have an extensive stake in Iran’s economy.
Estimates peg the Revolutionary Guard’s share of the nation’s economy at roughly 40 percent, and companies tied to the elite unit and its commanders have been awarded billions of dollars worth of government contracts, including lucrative projects in the energy sector.
A special branch of the IRGC, the al-Quds (Jerusalem) Force, is providing funds, weapons, training and technology to terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hizballah and the Taliban.
In Iraq, U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner said the Quds force has trained Iraqi insurgents in camps outside Tehran. There, they were schooled in the use of mortars, rockets, improvised explosive devises and other lethal tools.
Another beneficiary of al-Quds funding is Hamas. In February, Hamas supreme leader Khaled Meshaal met with Quds force officials to set up a supply route to smuggle rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles, guns and explosives across the porous border between the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. Mahmoud Zahar, formerly foreign minister in the Hamas-led Palestinian government, admitted in a recent interview to personally carrying millions of dollars from Iran to Gaza.
According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, “it’s pretty clear that there’s a fairly substantial flow of weapons” from Iran to the Taliban in Afghanistan. The al-Quds force is also playing a key role in arming Syria and providing weapons and training to Hizballah terrorists in Lebanon.
As a result of the Guard’s centrality to the Iranian economy, tough U.S. and international financial measures targeting the IRGC may have a substantial impact on the Guard’s willingness to press ahead with its nuclear efforts.
The U.N. Security Council, which called the Iranian nuclear program a threat to global peace and security, has passed two binding resolutions targeting several Guard commanders, freezing their assets and barring U.N. member states from conducting business with them.
Meanwhile, Congress is considering the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act, which seeks to toughen financial penalties against foreign companies that do business with Iran—in particular in the oil and gas sector that is largely controlled by the IRGC.
By choking off IRGC financial pipelines, American policymakers hope to limit its ability to harm U.S. allies and interests in the Middle East and pressure the Iranian government to drop its radical agenda.
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An elite arm of the Islamic Republic's military is increasing Tehran's influence and spreading terrorism across the Middle East.
