31.08.2011
Contact: emanuellevesely@realite-eu.org
Iran's Quds Force: Supporting Terrorism Worldwide
Last Wednesday, the European Union announced that it was introducing sanctions against Iran's elite Quds Force on the grounds of its technical and material support to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in his repression of the five-month-old uprising against his regime.
[1]On the same day, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, the top US military spokesman in Iraq, declared that Iranian-backed militias represent the greatest threat to Iraq’s security, outpacing al-Qaida-linked terrorists. Maj. Gen. Buchanan pointed out that the Quds Force “is providing direct support to the militias in terms of manning, equipping, provision of intelligence.” [2]
Global reach
According to the US State Department, the Quds Force, "the external operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is the regime’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad." [3]
On October 25, 2007, the US Department of the Treasury named the Quds Force a “specially designated global terrorist organization,” freezing its assets under US jurisdiction and prohibiting transactions with US parties. Measures were also taken against several senior Quds officers, including the force's commander Qassem Suleimani. [4]
The Quds Force’s activities are global: it has directorates for Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan; Afghanistan, Pakistan and India; Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula; Asian countries of the former USSR, Western nations (Europe and North America), and North Africa (Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Sudan, and Morocco). [5]
Its global reach was clearly stated by the unit's commander Suleimani, who reportedly said in early 2008: "General Petraeus (then the top US commander in Iraq), you should know that I, Qassem Suleimani, control the policy for Iran with respect to Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and Afghanistan. And indeed, the ambassador in Baghdad is a Quds Force member. The individual who's going to replace him is a Quds Force member." [6]
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