IRGC or an economic – terrorist cartel?

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp is the biggest benefiter of Iran’s economic sanctions and if the nuclear agreement is approved, it’s the IRGC that will be the major winner.

The IRGC was formed at the outset of Khomeini’s grasp of power with the main goal of protecting the establishment. During the Iran-Iraq War it turned into a classic military force. This was to a point where it’s man power, weapons, equipment and quadripartite forces were not only equal to the Iranian Army but surpassed it sophistically. After the Iran-Iraq War there was no reason to maintain this massive force and it either had to be dissolved or given a new assignment. 

This force gradually entered the economy, trade and import and export arena. When sanctions were slapped on Iran, the IRGC’s business began booming as it turned into the Iran’s biggest economic body. Now, the IRGC has a massive empire with an annual income of $10 to $12 billion. 

In order to enter into Iran’s economy the IRGC build a special base named Khatam Alambia. This base was named after the IRGC’s former engineering base. Currently it holds hundreds of construction, contracting and import and export companies.

Through companies affiliated to the Khatam Alambia Base, the IRGC signs building and construction contracts in other countries under the guise of construction company personnel and engineers. By doing so it enters Quds Force agents into the designated country and then forms militia groups in those countries.

One of the targeted countries of the Quds Force is Iraq. Currently there are hundreds of construction projects ongoing in this country that is run by the Khatam Alambia Base. Through these construction contracts, elements of the Quds Force enter this country and they become official.

Another measure of the IRGC is the curbing of the sanctions and the import of equipment and commodities needed for the Iranian regime’s nuclear program in order to build a nuclear bomb. By creating cover organizations in other countries, the IRGC has been able to provide the regime with the equipment needed to build a nuclear bomb. Many of these companies, which are affiliated to the Khatam Alambia Base, have been sanctioned by the US.

Therefore, the IRGC isn’t just a military force to protect the velayat-e faqih establishment, but it’s also an economic and terrorist cartel that is currently the Iranian regime’s economic and terrorist pulse.