Following the long overdue designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the United States, the terrorist activities and threats posed by the IRGC are becoming more and more clear as two international experts explain how the IRGC’s Quds Force has been endangering global peace and security by inflaming war across the Middle East and elsewhere.
Explaining how the Quds Force is acting as the Iranian regime extraterritorial arm, Seth G. Jones, director and senior adviser to the Transnational Threats Project said in an interview (See the video below): “The IRGC’s Quds Force is Iran’s primary military actor in the Middle East. It competes with countries like the United States by training, advising, and equipping sub-state forces, including Shiite militias in Iraq, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
“Iran’s goal with the bases like (those) in Lebanon is to improve the capabilities of its local actors,” Jones said and added that Iran has such bases in Syria, too, with the aim of bringing these actors from all over these locations for training.
He also explained the setbacks Iran regime experienced in its eight-year war with Iraq: “One of the things Iran recognized in the 1980s in its war with Iraq is that Iran was never going to be a major conventional power.”
“Between 2011 and 2019, we see a lot more Shiite militia and other fighters that work with the IRGC Quds Force in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bahrain. The reason Iran has more training facilities is that it has got more fighters to train,” Jones concluded.
Joseph S. Bermudez Jr, Senior Fellow for Imagery Analysis, also corroborated on the threats posed by the IRGC Quds Force. He said the mullahs’ regime is using military bases, such as the so-called Imam Ali base near Tehran, the capital of Iran, to train militants.
“The Imam Ali training facility in Iran is located on the outskirts of Tehran. This was a small facility until 2008. But it is much larger and comprehensive and capable now,” Mr. Bermudez said. “As a whole, the base is training personnel to operate in guerrilla warfare, which is considered regular warfare type scenarios.”