Iran's elite corps rejects US terror group allegation

IRAN:Iran's Revolutionary Guards yesterday dismissed Washington's threat to designate the corps as a terrorist group.

The head of its political office, named only as Javani, said that sanctions would only strengthen the corps. He observed that Washington had been plotting against Iran's Islamic regime for 27 years but said that the guards, known as the Pasdaran, would continue to fight subversion.

If Washington carries out its threat, it can be expected to put pressure on its own and foreign financial institutions to cease dealing with scores of Iranian enterprises, notably in the energy sector, operated or owned by the Pasdaran. The US objective is to compel Iran to suspend its nuclear programme, cease support for Hizbullah and Hamas and halt its involvement in Iraq. Washington alleges that the Pasdaran is training and arming Shia insurgents.

The 125,000-strong Pasdaran is independent of the regular army and answerable to the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Pasdaran was created as an elite force to preserve the 1979 Islamic revolution but it did not remain a small force with a limited role. It established naval and air units to complement the army, has expanded into business and has played a major role in politics. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former Pasdaran officer, was its candidate in the 2005 election.

Prof Gary Sick, of Columbia University, a leading US expert on Iran, says that taking action against the Pasdaran will provide the US with more leverage on Tehran than it already has.

"The US has for many years formally designated Iran as the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism. In that context, the US has placed sanctions on a wide variety of institutions and individuals . . . including the [ Pasdaran] and some of its 'business' enterprises," he says.

He points out that the US has already mobilised international banks to deny credit to Iranian banks and argues that sanctioning the Pasdaran could convince congress that serious steps are being taken against Iran for defying the UN over its nuclear programme and for meddling in Iraq. Sanctions could also convince Sunni Arabs to align themselves with the US against Iran.

Prof Sick says that the US sees sanctions as a means to drive home to Tehran Washington's contention that the Pasdaran is involved in attacks on US troops and in destabilising Iraq.

He characterised the US move as "political showmanship and manoeuvring for negotiating advantage rather than a new or significant effort to interdict the [ Pasdaran] and its operations".