Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Labeled A ‘Terror Group’ – OpEd

President Donald Trump announced on Monday, April 8, 2019, that the United States is designating Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign “terrorist organization” as part of an effort to increase international pressure on the country

It is the first time the US has labeled another nation’s military as a terrorist organization.

The White House said the IRGC was Iran’s primary means of “implementing its global terrorist campaign”.

This designation ends the façade that the IRGC is part of a normal military.

Labeling the IRGC as a terrorist organization will allow the US to impose further sanctions – particularly affecting the business sector. The IRGC is not only Iran’s most powerful military force but also dominates the country’s key economic sectors, such as energy, construction, telecommunication, media, mining, electronics, automobile, banking, nuclear, and more. While IRGC leaders claim their involvement in the economic sector benefits the Iranian people and economy, in reality, it spends most of the revenues on military expenditures at home and abroad.

As an example On March 21, 2018, General Ebadollah Abdollahi said: the organization’s major projects this year are in the oil and gas industry, water management, railway and road construction, port and mine development, oil and gas pipelines, and information technology. He pointed out that the conglomerate will implement 10 projects for the Oil Ministry with a total cost of $22 billion in investment. He also emphasized that a key priority for Khatam al-Anbia this year is to complete the Persian Gulf Star oil refinery, which he claimed would meet half of the country’s gasoline need.

Environmental experts believe that deforestation has been one of the major causes of flooding in recent years in the country. Deforestation has been implemented by IRGC during the past 40 years. According to Iran’s Natural Resources and Forestry Organization, the northern forests area has been reduced from 3.6 million to 1.8 million hectares during the past 40 years.

In recent deadly flood in Iran, Angry locals in villages around the southwestern town of Susangerd and Dashte Azadegan in Khuzestan province clashed with forces of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps in the early hours Wednesday April 3, 2019

According to reports, the IRGC had taken down the flood barriers that locals had made to prevent flood water from entering their farmlands. The Guards wanted to direct water away from IRGC controlled oil wells in Dashte Azadegan.

The locals’ resistance led to armed clashes with the IRGC.IRGC opened fire, killing 1 Mr. Abud Rabie & wounding 5 civilians.

Secretary Pompeo tweeted on April 8, 2019: In an important step to counter the Iranian regime’s terrorism, the U.S. has designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, incl. Qods Force, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. We must help the people of Iran get back their freedom.

Since its foundation back in 1979, the IRGC has played an active role in the domestic crackdown against all protests and uprisings throughout the past 40 years and expanding the mullahs’ malign influence across the Middle East through terrorist proxy groups. The 1983 Beirut bombings that left over 240 U.S. Marines killed in their barracks was carried out by the Lebanese Hezbollah, a terrorist group sponsored, trained and funded by the IRGC from day one. The IRGC has also been behind around 608 deaths of American service members, around 17% of the total US personnel deaths in Iraq between 2003 and 2011. This is in addition to the many thousands of Iranians it has tortured and killed.

In a ridiculous “Tit for Tat” move after the U.S. announced it has designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a “foreign terrorist organization, “Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made the demand in a letter to President Hassan Rouhani, according to the official IRNA news agency. Iran’s foreign minister wants to include Middle East-based U.S. military forces the country’s “terrorist groups” list.

NRCI president-elect Maryam Rajavi described the US action as a “long-standing and righteous demand” of the Iranian Resistance and “an imperative for Middle East security, peace, and stability.”

The IRGC “constitutes the pillar of the velayat-e faqih regime (absolute clerical rule), is the main apparatus of repression, the primary driver of war and export of terrorism, and responsible for pursuing nuclear weapons and missile projects,” Rajavi said.

She said the terrorist organization “controls the lion’s share of Iran’s economy”.

“It is no wonder that the religious fascism ruling Iran, its apologists and mercenaries have become terrified of IRGC’s designation,” she said.

The NCRI said it is time for the European Union to follow suit by designating the IRGC also as a terrorist entity, pointing out that the Iranian regime has caused so much bloodshed in other countries such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Afghanistan.

Such designation would help the Iranian people and the Resistance achieve “the ultimate solution to rid the world of the ruling theocracy in Iran”, the movement said.