The IRGC is the most vital institution of the Velayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Theocratic State) regime, and was created after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran, mainly to weaken and replace the national armed forces, and primarily focused on Iran’s military institutions. Following the end of the Iran-Iraq war, and with the formation of Khatam al-Anbia Offices during the presidency of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and especially during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the IRGC became “the largest contractor for government projects in the country.” The IRGC commanders and officials foot prints are directly and indirectly involved in the national football federation, the Islamic Assembly, telecommunications and film, as well as many other areas of trade, commerce, management and the national and regional bureaucracy.
The IRGC justifies this ever increasing areas of influence by relying on two articles of the theocratic state: Article 147 of the constitution, which gives the government the power to use the military’s personnel, technical expertise and materiele in relief , training, manufacturing, and construction jihads, in full compliance with the Islamic justice norms and traditions, in such a way, that it does not hinder combat readiness. And Article 10 of the Statute of the Revolutionary Guards Corp which allows it to participate in relief operations during disasters and emergencies, and to carry out relief, training, production and construction of jihad services, at the request of the government and in full compliance with Islamic justice norms and traditions in peacetime, but only to the extent that, according to IRGC’s Supreme Council, such activities do not lead to the loss of combat readiness to carry out its missions.
Article 3, Section 16 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, calls “conducting the country’s foreign policy according to Islamic criteria, fraternal commitment to all Muslims, and unwavering support for the world’s oppressed” as one of the most important duties of the government.
Thus, in order to export its Islamic revolution to other parts of the world, the Theocratic State of the Velayat-e Faqih created the Quds ( Holy) Force to increase its revolutionary hegemony in the Middle East. As a consequence of the IRGC-Qods Force’s maligned and terrorist activities in the region, millions of people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands have died in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen.
The IRGC, led by Velayat-e Faqih, has turned Iran into an international pariah state which has resulted in catastrophic sanctions on the Iranian people. While all of the naion’s economic, political, cultural, social and environmental infrastructures have been disrupted and destroyed, the IRGC and its allies have pocketed huge wealth by circumventing sanctions, drug trafficking, the use of digital currencies and money laundering.
The IRGC’s activities and its affiliated agencies are not only about circumventing sanctions and smuggling, but bitcoin mining is also monopolized by the IRGC. According to the German news network, Deutsche Welle in 2021, the blockchain analytics firm, Elliptic Enterprises, Ltd., published a report that 600 megawatts of electricity is used annually in Iran to extract $1 billion in bitcoin. Such a huge amount of revenue, equivalent to four months of the Armenian government’s budget, or two months of the Afghan government’s, cannot be the work of everyday Iranians. It was previously reported that the IRGC, with the help of Chinese crypto miners in Iran’s Rafsanjan region, and other parts of the country, had set up large cryptocurrency extraction farms and utilized cheap electricity in the country. A new study has found that about 4.5 percent of the world’s Bitcoin mining is done in Iran.
The Islamic Republic of Iran’s acceptance of the International Convention for Suppression of Financing Terrorism undoubtedly will hinder the IRGC’s malign regional activities and direct financial and military support to terrorist groups in the region, including Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Creating and continuing regional crisis and conflict points has been one of IRGC’s main tools for the continuity of the regime. This is why, for the past four decades, the regime has used repression of Iranian citizens, by brute force, as well as filtering social media and internet access, and censoring and outright blocking of information. Corruption and kleptocracy is so prevalent in the banking, judicial and administrative bureaucracy of the country that no other institution dares to fight it, because the kelptocrats have deep roots in all the circles of political and military power which inlcude the revolutionary foundations of the Theocratic State.
Iran’s National Council for Free Elections would like to remind the U.S. government that the withdrawal of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the list of terrorist organizations will once again unleash this sinister mafia, and that strengthening this evil and repressive institution by the world’s most powerful democracy will only result in the shedding of more blood and destruction for the People of Iran and as well as the people of the region. One of the most effective ways to combat the IRGC’s corruption and malign activities, which are led by Ali Khamenei, is to continue to exert maximum pressure and sanctions on the IRGC and all entities affiliated and or associated with this dreafdul organ of terror, by the U.S. government.
Iran’s National Council for Free Elections