Iranian revolutionary garrison captured by Korean ships

On the 4th, a Korean-born chemical carrier was captured in the Strait of Hormuz in southeastern Iran. However, it was not the Iranians who led the’Korea Chemie’. These are the Navy of the Revolutionary Guards (Islamic Revolutionary Guards, IRGC) independent from the Iranian regular army.

Iran has two armies simultaneously in one country. The Revolutionary Guards are similar in roles to the Nazi armed SS (Waffen SS), but have more power. It is an omnipotent power that the Iranian president should also notice.

On January 8 last year, a Ukrainian International Airlines (UIA) airliner that took off from the Iranian capital Tehran crashed, killing all 176 passengers. Three days later, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Army admitted to the accident, claiming that the Iranian army had shot it down.

At this time, it was the revolutionary garrison who shot the missile, not the regular army. Amir Ali Hajizade, commander of the Revolutionary Guard Air Defense Force at the interview, dropped his head, saying, “The enemy was mistaken for a cruise missile shot prior to attacking a fighter.”

But that was all. Iranian President Hassan Rohany could not reproach Commander Hajijade. Even the tragedy in which 83 Iranian citizens were killed is inevitable. Even the president may be slammed if he looks disliked by the revolutionary garrison. It really happened.

In December 2010, according to a US diplomatic report revealed by WikiLeaks, in June 2009, then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was condemned by the head of the Revolutionary Guard Mohammed Ali Japari at a National Security Conference. The reason for the assault is that he said to himself, “I think we should expand our freedom of speech.”

Revolutionary Guards are treated as heroes in Iran. But in the US, it’s a nasty thing like a’eye thorn’.

In January of last year, 22 ballistic missiles were poured into US bases stationed in Iraq. It was revenge for the assassination of US forces in Baghdad, Iraq, for the assassination of Commander Quds of the Revolutionary Guard Gasem Soleimani.

It was also the revolutionary garrison who inflicted shame on the United States, who were wandering through the sky in the Middle East. In June 2019, it shot down the U.S. military’s high-altitude unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, the RQ-4 Global Hawk, by shooting the Sebom Hordad, a self-developed surface-to-air missile in Iran.

Threats from the sea are also frequent. In January 2016, two U.S. military ships were captured. In April of last year, 11 patrol boats raced near the US Navy ship as if they would collide. I raided 12 times that week alone.

US President Donald Trump, angry at this, instructed the Navy, “If an Iranian ship in the sea bothers our warships, shoot them all and destroy them.”

However, even the U.S. military does not easily exercise skills. 610,000 and 350,000 reserve troops, including 420,000 regular Iranian soldiers and 190,000 revolutionary guards, are ready to enter the war at any time.

Although the revolutionary garrison is smaller than the regular army, it is composed of land, sea, air force, and marine units, and has a qualitative advantage by operating special and intelligence units. In particular, the control of ballistic missiles, the strategic weapon of the Iranian army, lies in the revolutionary garrison, not the regular army.

However, here you can find traces of North Korea. In January last year, short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) such as Kiam-1 and Fate-110 were mixed in an attack on a US military base, both of which were developed with North Korean technical help. Iran supports North Korea with technology to develop nuclear weapons and maintains a secret cooperation structure.

On the 8th (local time), Sepa News, operated by the Revolutionary Guard, unveiled an underground missile base. In July of last year, it was said that it had built an’underground missile city’ that stretched 2200 km off the coast of the Gulf.

On the day, Josein Salami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard, emphasized, “The new base is one of the bases that accommodates missiles of the Revolutionary Guard Navy. Our military will defend the main interests of the state with strong offensive defense.”

The revolutionary garrison is directly led by Ali Josein Hamenei, the supreme leader of the religion. The heads of administrative, legislative, and judiciary, including the president elected by the people, also follow the guidelines of the supreme leader.

This is because the revolutionary garrison was created after the Iranian Revolution, when Ayatollah Ruhola Khomeini destroyed the Palevi dynasty in 1979. This is the background behind the revolution that established the Islamic theocratic system and reigned as a bodyguard defending the regime based on Islamic religion.

Therefore, the most important role of the revolutionary garrison is to prevent the coup of regular Iranian forces rooted in the former dynasty system. The Revolutionary Guards are deployed across Iran with overwhelming military power than regular troops to prepare for a possible coup. In addition, when anti-government protests occur, they will also try to crack down.

It is a common feature of dictatorships or coup regimes to check regular forces and establish a bodyguard unit to control the people. Adolf Hitler feared a coup by the German Defense Force’s army, which had a large number of former Prussian Junker (noble) officers shortly after he came to power in 1933. The Nazi Party Guard was established to strengthen the security of the President and monitor the public.

Some analysts say that the revolutionary guards occupy two-thirds of Iran’s industry. While possessing national key industries such as construction companies and petrochemical companies, it is deeply involved in major development projects such as gas development, dam construction, subways, and highways to accumulate wealth.

Most of Iran’s funds, frozen overseas under US sanctions, are also believed to be the property of the Revolutionary Guard. On the 5th, an Iranian government spokesman claimed that “the Korean government is holding 7 billion dollars (about 7.6 trillion won) hostage.” This refers to Iranian funds whose withdrawal has been frozen in Korea due to US sanctions against Iran.

The Revolutionary Guards are also responsible for defending the Islamic religion throughout the Middle East. In particular, we are proud of the pivotal role of Shiite, an Islamic sect that the majority of Iran believes. The goal of the revolutionary garrison is to create a geopolitical belt called the “Shiite Crescent.” It is a composition in which the Sunni nations, centered on Saudi Arabia, compete for dominance in the Middle East.

The US expelled Sunni Hussein from the 2003 Iraq War, opening up opportunities for Shiite expansion. Iran, Iraq and Syria are the only countries in the Middle East where Shiites dominate.

The Revolutionary Guard also has a strong relationship with Hezbollah, a Shiite militants in Lebanon. These are the largest terrorist organizations in the Middle East and are the forces the United States is most wary of. The Kuds Army, in charge of overseas operations, was dispatched to Lebanon in 1982 to support militia training, funding, and weapons, and served as a midwife in the process of establishing Hezbollah in 1985.

It also supports the Shiite Huti rebels in Yemen. They are in a civil war with Sunni government forces. Since Saudi Arabia is supporting the government behind the military, it is virtually the same as fighting between Iran and Saudi Arabia in religious and proxy wars.

The Revolutionary Guards sometimes also support the Sunni, rival Shiites. It supplies rockets to Hamas, an armed faction in Gaza, Palestine, a leading anti-Israel terrorist organization.

Recently, the position of the revolutionary garrison within Iran has declined. The death of Soleimani, who led the revolutionary garrison, greatly reduced its influence. His successor, Smail Carney, doesn’t show as much presence and leadership as his predecessor. In addition, Hamenei (81 years old), who has been the highest leader following Khomeini since 1989, is also shaken by the illness and discussion of successors.

The public sentiment that supported the revolutionary garrison also turns. The average economic growth rate over the past three years has been around -6.3%. The United States is pressured by sanctions against Iran when the theocratic regime defended by the Revolutionary Guard insisted on developing nuclear weapons.

The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) in Iran is 1.27 million, the 15th largest in the world. The death toll was 56,000, the ninth, and the mortality rate was relatively high.

Social unrest aggravated in the aftermath of the economic crisis and the spread of Corona 19. In the meantime, it is difficult to avoid criticism because it has focused only on supporting Shiite forces abroad and has neglected to care for the Iranian people.

The fall of the Palevi dynasty was due to dictatorship and corruption. The revolutionary garrison, the vested power that appeared at that time, is in a similar situation.

Iran’s presidential election will be held this June. It can be an opportunity for people’s sentiment to rise. Just in time, the Iranian government and Biden’s next US government are expected to resume nuclear negotiations, which had been broken during Trump’s reign.

The revolutionary garrison seems difficult to avoid the crisis of existence if external threats or tensions diminish. Thus, the fate of the dictatorship is similar. And it repeats. This is why we are concerned about protruding actions such as capturing Korean ships.

Reporter Park Yonghan [email protected]