“The Revolutionary Guard is the Iranian Supreme Leader’s corrupt personal terror force and militia,” US President Donald Trump stated on Friday in a speech outlining his administration’s new strategy on Iran.
“It has hijacked large portions of Iran’s economy and seized massive religious endowments to fund war and terror abroad. This includes arming the Syrian dictator, supplying proxies and partners with missiles and weapons to attack civilians in the region, and even plotting to bomb a popular restaurant right here in Washington DC.”
He authorized the Treasury Department to further sanction the IRGC “for its support for terrorism,” but stopped short of declaring the group a terror organization.
The Treasury Department issued a statement on Friday announcing sanctions, arguing that Iran’s pursuit of power, which the IRGC plays a central role in, “comes at the cost of regional stability.”
Among its accusations against the IRGC, the Treasury said the force has transferred military equipment to Iraq and Syria for the Quds Force, which the US has designated a supporter of terrorism.
Pundits expect the move will have an effect in Iraq where the Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi force has become a dominant force and is currently engaged in a standoff with Kurdish forces near Kirkuk.
“I think it gives a greater power to those of us who want to see a better situation in Iraq, a better situation for the Iraqi Kurds, for all of the Iraqi people, away from the negative influence of Iran. So I think it’s a very positive development,” Alberto Fernandez, former US ambassador to Sudan, told Rudaw’s Rebaz Ali in Washington.
Some are hoping to see an immediate effect on the volatile situation unfolding in Kirkuk area.
“This is good for the folks in Kurdistan who now potentially will see the IRGC and the other folks on their borders, who are looking to cause them trouble, and right now causing trouble in Kirkuk. There’s some pretty bad stuff going on there. That may have to stop with the IRGC now being sanctioned as a terrorist organization,” said Jim Hanson, president of Security Studies Group.
As tensions escalate in the wake of Kurdistan’s independence referendum and the Hashd appear to hold great influence over developments, leading the call for Peshmerga to cede control of key sites in Kirkuk, there are growing calls to check Iranian influence.
British MP Jack Lopresti and former US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad have both recently called for international engagement to prevent conflict.
Iran has slammed Trump’s new policy. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated on Twitter that the whole nation was “standing firm” in support of the IRGC, which has defended Iran and the region “against aggression & terror.”
President Hassan Rouhani made a televised speech shortly after Trump’s, saying the American president had offered nothing but a “handful of baseless and empty allegations” against Iran.
“The Iranian nation is not a nation that surrenders to a dictator by false statements and hate speech and the great nation of Iran has never surrendered to any power,” he said.
The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), one of several Kurdish parties engaged in an armed struggle against Tehran, has campaigned for the IRGC to be designated a terror organization, thereby giving greater international recognition and legitimacy to the Kurdish struggle in Iran.
