US slaps sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary guard corp [Archive]

Jasonik

10-25-2007, 06:55 PM

List: Sanctioned Iranian Groups, People
By The Associated Press (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jfJULZ3sZWrFMmtoF3C8esesHcQw)

Targets of new sanctions against Iran Thursday, according to a government fact sheet:

_ The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_Guardians_of_the_Islamic_Revolution): The military vanguard of Iran. It runs prisons, and has numerous economic interests involving defense production, construction, and the oil industry.

_ Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics: Controls the Defense Industries Organization.

_ Quds Force (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quds_force): A branch of the IRGC that provides material support to the Taliban, Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.

_ Bank Saderat, its branches, and subsidiaries: Used by the government of Iran to channel funds to terrorist organizations.

_ Bank Melli, its branches and subsidiaries: Iran's largest bank. It also provides banking services to the IRGC and the Quds Force.

_ Bank Mellat, its branches, and subsidiaries: Provides banking services in support of Iran's nuclear entities.

_ Khatam al-Anbya Construction Headquarters: Listed as a company owned or controlled by the IRGC.

_ Oriental Oil Kish: Listed as a company owned or controlled by the IRGC.

_ Ghorb Nooh: Listed as a company owned or controlled by the IRGC.

_ Sahel Consultant Engineering: Listed as a company owned or controlled by the IRGC.

_ Ghorb-e Karbala: Listed as a company owned or controlled by the IRGC.

_ Sepasad Engineering Co.: Listed as a company owned or controlled by the IRGC.

_ Omran Sahel: Listed as a company owned or controlled by the IRGC.

_ Hara Company: Listed as a company owned or controlled by the IRGC.

_ Gharargahe Sazandegi Ghaem: Listed as a company owned or controlled by the IRGC.

_ Gen. Hosein Salimi: Commander of the Air Force, IRGC

_ Brig. Gen. Morteza Rezaie: Deputy Commander of the IRGC

_ Vice Adm. Ali Akhbar Ahmadian: Chief of the IRGC Joint Staff

_ Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hejazi: Commander of Bassij resistance force

_ Brig. Gen. Qasem Soleimani: Commander of the Quds Force

_ Ahmad Vahid Dastjerdi, Head of the Aerospace Industry Organization

_ Reza-Gholi Esmaeli, Head of Trade & International Affairs Dept., AIO

_ Bahmanyar Morteza Bahmanyar, Head of Finance & Budget Department, AIO

Source: Treasury Department

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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards: more than an army

By Stuart Williams (http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C10%5C26%5Cstory_26-10-2007_pg4_21)

IRAN’S Revolutionary Guards, set to be the target of unilateral US sanctions, are a fiercely committed force whose influence has extended beyond the military 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. “If the enemy wants to take any impudent action against the Islamic republic, we will for sure give a decisive and teeth-breaking response,” its new commander General Mohammad Ali Jaafari warned last month.

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, will be 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 into 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 within 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 shut down the key oil conduit the Strait of Hormuz 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 officers suspected of still being loyal to the US-backed shah overthrown in the revolution.

In an 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. afp