Kamangir (Archer)

A Lonely Birthday for a Terrorist Organization (IRGC)

Kamangir | August 15, 2007 | Category Iran, Islamic Republic, Israel, US

The Supreme Leader’s representative in the Islamic Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s second army which might be designated as a terrorist group soon, congratulated its personnel for the national day of IRGC members. Today is the anniversary of Imam Hossein’s birthday, also called the day for IRGC members. Ali Saedi stated [Persian],

You IRGC members have the privilege of defending the holy regime of Iran under the thoughtful leadership of the Supreme Leader. You are going to continue our martyr-seeking [not literal translation] until the return of Mehdi [the Islamic Messiah] and the establishment of the international rule of good people.

The ambitions mentioned at the end of the sentence are probably among the reasons US has decided to add IRGC to the organization which support terrorism.

To talk about the inclusion, IRNA uses the title “The news about IRGC’s inclusion in the list of terrorist organizations is invalid”. The state-run agency quotes “an informed source” in the Foreign Ministry saying, “This is propaganda against the Islamic Republic by the American administration”. The report continues with, “If this is true, it is nothing new and it is illegal” [Persian].

To make things even more interesting, Fars has published an interview with IRGC commander, done for the anniversary of the IRGC day, in which Safavi states “IRGC is the largest defensive power in the Middle East”.”With access to the most advanced technologies, we are well able to defend our land. However, after the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan we have changed our doctrine and we are now able to fight against powers from outside the region, especially against airborne and seaborne attacks”. “We have missiles with 2,000 kilometers of range and our shore-to-see missiles can cover the whole Persian Gulf and the Oman Sea. No vessel can move in the Persian Gulf and be outside the range of our missiles. We have thousands of super fast boats in the Persian Gulf, plus a big defensive and offensive force in there”. “We have 12,000,000 Basij members and each city and village can defend itself…This defensive system is organized through five layers of communications…We can fight helicopters and we can attack Israeli Merkava tanks and American Abrams tanks, and so we can infiltrate American and Israeli forces.” Safavi, however, emphasized that, “We think about peace in the Middle East and this is all a defensive strategy” [Persian].

Thanks to Roman Kalik for the tip.