Friday, April 30, 2010
Iran's 'Right Arm' Has Global Reach
Daniel Darling analyzes the role--and reach--of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps in the context of an in-depth discussion of Iran's military, which, he believes, is still lacking and antiquated in many respects:
Iran’s military arm is divided into three main components: the regular army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Order Forces (or Law Enforcement Force). While the regular army is charged with national defense and the Order Forces oversee border security and the national police, the IRGC is the Praetorian Guard of the Islamic Revolution, outfitted with its own army, air force, navy and Special Forces units, as well as an internal intelligence branch. The IRGC controls Iranian missile production, the nation’s chemical and biological weapons, and is believed to oversee the nuclear developmental program.
The politically-powerful IRGC not only serves as the Islamic regimes right arm, but as purveyor of its external interests. Through the use of the Guards’ special Qods Force the Iranian regime is able to nurture its proxies in the Levant, which include Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. These elements are important to Iran as an indirect means through which to strike at Israel - in the process ensuring Israeli military attention is fixated foremost on immediate threats emanating from Gaza and southern Lebanon. The Qods Force is charged with providing arms, training and financial support for these groups, while in the process gathering intelligence on Israeli military tactics and capabilities.
The Qods Force has also been active in Iraq, where its Ramazan Corps has aided Iraqi Shiite militants and been linked by the U.S. military to the flow of Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFPs) into Iraq and the proliferation there of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Spreading its reach further abroad, the Qods Force is now believed to have placed operatives in Venezuela, adroitly posting them in embassies and cultural/charitable institutions.
Click here to read the entire article.
