{"id":231416,"date":"2020-12-18T10:36:40","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T10:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=231416"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:29:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:29:35","slug":"irans-revolutionary-guards-are-clearly-terrorists-and-so-is-the-whole-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/irans-revolutionary-guards-are-clearly-terrorists-and-so-is-the-whole-regime\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards Are Clearly Terrorists, and So Is the Whole Regime"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Iran<\/a>
Inside Iran\u2019s Army of Terror and Oppression: Revolutionary Guards (IRGC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the British House of Commons recently issued a report<\/a> that recommended terrorist designation for Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. \u201cThe IRGC\u2019s philosophy and malign actions within Iran and across the region run counter to the interests of the UK and those of the Iranian people,\u201d the report said after noting that the hardline paramilitary organization satisfies \u201cthe criteria for proscription in the Terrorism Act 2000.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether the government of the United Kingdom will act in accordance with this recommendation, though blacklisting of the IRGC<\/a> is certainly long overdue. It was already overdue in 2019 when the United States took that step, extending the label of \u201cForeign Terrorist Organization\u201d to the entire paramilitary where it had once been limited to the foreign special operations division known as the Quds Force<\/a>. That move was formally embraced by 37 British Members of Parliament, who urged the UK to follow suit, thereby helping to set the stage for the recent report.<\/p>\n

The lawmakers\u2019 statement placed roughly equal emphasis on the IRGC\u2019s support of foreign terrorism and its suppression of pro-democratic dissent both at home and abroad. It also took a broader view of the pressure that might be exerted on Iranian institutions, identifying the Ministry of Intelligence and Security as something that is equally deserving of terrorist designation. There is no immediate sign that this is on the table, but real action against the IRGC could be a sign of assertive trends in Western policy toward the Iranian regime as a whole.<\/p>\n

Citizens of Western nations and supporters of Middle Eastern democracy should eagerly look forward to that outcome, and they should push aggressively for policies that support it. And pending such an assertive shift, those same people should be prepared for potential escalation in the threats posed by the IRGC, the MOIS, and their overseers in Tehran. That potential was placed vividly on display about two and a half years ago when European authorities thwarted an Iranian terror plot<\/a> that would have most likely killed hundreds, if not thousands of people in a Paris suburb.<\/p>\n

\"Weekly-Signe-up-logo-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The target of that plot was a gathering<\/a> of Iranian expatriates organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The NCRI\u2019s main constituent group, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI-MEK<\/a>), had led a nationwide uprising inside Iran just several months before the event, and the French terror plot proved to be just one aspect of a broader strategy aimed at stamping out dissent.<\/p>\n

That strategy has been fruitless so far, but there is no guarantee that the repression of dissent won\u2019t become more effective as it escalates. That escalation was evident in November 2019, when the Iranian people and the MEK staged another uprising<\/a>, similar in focus but even larger in scale than that which took place at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018. Whereas the earlier incident led to several dozen deaths, the latter was met with much swifter brutality, particularly from the IRGC, which opened fire on crowds of peaceful protesters and killed<\/a> 1,500 people in a matter of days.<\/p>\n

That one series of killings is more than enough justification for designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization. It also goes a long way toward highlighting the extent to which the Iranian people could be expected to benefit from measures that stem the flow of cash to and from the IRGC and thereby encourage the reallocation of wealth back to the Iranian people. Detailed reports from the MEK and the NCRI describe the IRGC as constituting a financial empire that encompasses more than half of the Iran\u2019s gross domestic product. And the effects of that economic dominance have perhaps never been more apparent than during the Covid-19 pandemic, which by some accounts has left 186,900 Iranians dead<\/a> while others suffer in absence of direct assistance from the government or its affiliates.<\/p>\n

The 2018 Paris terror plot is a stark reminder that these two phenomena go hand-in-hand, as do the interests of the Iranian people and the Western world. Meanwhile, the details of that plot underscore the fact that the malign activities associated with the IRGC are actual integral aspects of the entire Iranian regime\u2019s strategy for maintaining its hold on power.<\/p>\n

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Iran's diplomat & the largest terror plot in Europe. What was Assadollah Assadi's role<\/div><\/div>
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