The designation of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation by the United States is emerging as a major sticking point in the revival of Tehran’s nuclear accord with the world powers.
Robert Malley, the US special envoy for talks in Vienna, has insisted that Washington will continue to impose sanctions. “The IRGC will remain sanctioned under the US law and our perception of the IRGC will remain,” he told a conference in Qatar last week.
“I can’t be confident it’s imminent. A few months ago we thought it was imminent,” he added.
Iran has stressed the removal of IRGC from the terror-designated entities by the US before the revival of its nuclear accord.
Since April 2021, Iran has been holding direct negotiations with China, Russia, Germany, Britain and France, and indirectly with the United States, for the revival of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that restricts Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions on trade and individuals.
Under President Donald Trump, the US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and, a year later, designated the elite IRCG, which is part of Iran’s armed forces, as a “foreign terrorist organisation.” The latest posturing by the two sides has cast dark clouds on the future of the deal.
Israel and its Arab allies have been pushing the United States to keep the IRGC on the sanctioned list. The demand has reverberated in the US Congress as well where several Congressmen recently urged in a letter to the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to not remove IRGC from the designated list.
Narrative
With an estimated 2 lakh troops and intel networks, tech experts and an external arm, the IRGC is a feared agency in West Asia and beyond, explainsJehangir Ali
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or Sepah-e Pasdaran is an elite branch of Iran’s armed forces. It was formed on May 5, 1979, on the orders of Ayatollah Ruhullah Khomeini following the Islamic revolution that toppled the pro-West government of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.
The aim of the agency was to defend the country’s infantile Islamic system from internal and external threats, besides working as a lever against the armed forces, who were working for Shah, and overseeing Iran’s strategic assets.
The IRGC controls the Basij Resistance Force, the economic nerve-centre of the agency, which is also used by the powerful clerics to suppress dissent in the country and it oversees the country’s ballistic missile programme.
With an estimated 2,00,000 troopers, the IRGC maintains its own divisions of land combat, navy and air force, besides intelligence networks, technology experts and an external operations arm called Quds Force, making it one of the most feared agencies in West Asia and beyond.
The agency is headed by Maj Gen Hossein Salami, who got an out-of-turn promotion in 2019 by unceremoniously displacing then IRGC commander, Maj Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari, who held the key post since 2007.
The IRGC navy patrols the strategic Strait of Hormuz that connects the Gulf to the Indian Ocean. Around 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply passes through this route and the IRGC patrols often claim to have intercepted US warships approaching Iran’s territorial waters, detained ships or forced them to take diversions.
Although the IRGC preferred to work as a security agency with inviting attention, its role came into prominence during the 2009 election in the country and the curbing of protests in its aftermath against the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It illustrated not just the military prowess of IRGC but also its political and economic heft. According to US assessment, the members of IRGC have ties to companies with more than $20 billion worth of annual business.
Over the years, the agency has used asymmetric warfare against Iran’s adversaries in West Asia, such as Saudi Arabia and Israel, to achieve tactical victories against a superior military. The Quds force, which was designated as a terrorist organisation by the US treasury department around 2009, has trained, armed and funded militias such as Hamas in Palestine, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Shia militias in Syria and Iraq to defend Iran’s strategic interests.
The US has accused the Quds force of killing several Americans and carrying out several terror attacks. The New York Times reported that the US ordered a hit that led to the assassination of the powerful IRGC commander Gen Qassem Soleimani on January 3, 2020, in a drone strike in Baghdad. It escalated fears of violence in West Asia. It was the biggest setback that the agency has faced in many years.
In 2020, Israel killed top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadah who was reportedly also a IRGC member. His killing is believed to have badly impacted Iran’s nuclear programme. IRGC officers routinely work in influential positions in the Iranian government, although their affiliations are kept secret while as the serving IRGC criticise the government, which reflects their deep ties with the Iranian clerics who rule the country.
Source » news9live