Iran's Revolutionary Guards: more than an army http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast <http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast&item=07102 5153912.d2sb250m.php> &item=071025153912.d2sb250m.php
Iran's Revolutionary Guards, hit by unilateral US sanctions on Thursday, are a fiercely committed force whose influence has extended beyond the military field into politics and the economy. Almost three decades after the Islamic revolution, the Guards remain the elite military guardian of late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's ideology. "The Guards enjoy a great capability to strongly confront any threat or aggression," its new commander General Mohammad Ali Jaafari said on Thursday. "If the enemies dare to carry out their (military) threats, every single strike of theirs will be answered with several even harsher strikes," he said, according to the IRNA news agency. But it is their increasing economic power the United States is seeking to squeeze by designating the Guards a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and their covert operations unit, the Quds Force, a supporter of terrorism. The move, which comes amid rising tensions between the two governments over Iran's controversial nuclear drive, is the first time that Washington has sought to directly sanction another country's military. In recent years, the Guards' influence has started to permeate all areas of Iranian society, with their engineering arm picking up massive contracts and former cadres moving into crucial political positions. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fought for the Revolutionary Guards during the 1980-1988 war with Iraq and after taking office in 2005 promoted five former Guards members to cabinet posts. In business, the Guards now reap an increasingly substantial income which the United States is seeking to block with the blacklisting. In 2006, the Guards won a contract worth 2.09 billion dollars to develop phases 15 and 16 of Iran's biggest gas field, South Pars, and a 1.3 billion dollar deal to build a pipeline towards Pakistan. An extension of the Tehran metro, a high speed rail link between Tehran and Isfahan, shipping ports on Iran's south coast, a major dam in Khuzestan province -- all of these projects are in the hands of the Guards. The Revolutionary Guards work in parallel with the regular armed forces but have their own land, sea, air and missile units. Their missile capabilities have aroused the greatest international concern as their Shahab-3 longer range missile has Israel and US bases in the Middle East within reach. The Guards have also warned they have US bases in Iraq and Afghanistan under watch, implying the force will pound these targets and could shut down the key Strait of Hormuz oil conduit if the United States launches a military attack. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in September appointed Jaafari -- an experienced ground commander and expert in assymetric warfare -- to head the Guards in place of Yahya Rahim Safavi. Some observers saw the move as readying the Guards for conflict but Iran insisted it was just a regular reshuffle as Safavi had already served a 10-year term. The mysterious Quds Force, whose existence has never been officially acknowledged by Iran, is accused by the United States of shipping tank-busting bombs into Iraq for attacks on US troops and training Shiite militiamen there. The US military has accused five Iranians it detained in northern Iraq in January and another arrested in September of being members of the Quds Force seeking to stir trouble. It has even claimed Iran's ambassador in Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, is himself a member of the Quds Force. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enghlab-e Islami) was formed shortly after the revolution. The force, now believed to be 100,000 strong, was intended to counter perceived threats from leftist guerrillas or army officers suspected of still being loyal to the US-backed shah overthrown in the revolution. In a astonishing show of power in May 2004, the Revolutionary Guards shut down Tehran's new international airport the day it opened in protest over a Turkish-Austrian consortium that allegedly had business dealings with Israel. The Guards were also mandated to organise a large people's militia, the Basij, in 1980. The Basij has 12 million volunteers who receive training at some 11,000 centres across the country. C2007 AFP (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. 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