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Canada Finally Targets Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps; More Action Is Needed
Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Photo: Reuters/Morteza Nikoubazl.
The recent move by Canada to list the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization marks a significant moment in the international effort to curb Iran’s malignant activities on the global stage. This decision comes after years of extensive lobbying and is a clear indicator of the growing concern among nations about the IRGC’s role in fostering instability both regionally and internationally.
Iran’s IRGC, established in the aftermath of the 1979 mullahs’ terrorist revolt, is not merely a military organization; it is an influential political actor within Iran, wielding substantial economic power and executing the ideological and strategic intentions of the regime both domestically and internationally. More ominously, the IRGC’s mandate transcends traditional military duties, involving itself deeply in Iran’s political sphere, influencing its economic landscape, and most notably, orchestrating complex networks of proxy warfare across the Middle East and beyond.
The word Iran doesn’t appear in the name of the IRGC. Essentially, this terrorist organization is active in protecting the Islamic Caliphate of the Ayatollah Khamenei and promoting the destructive ideology of Khomeinism under the guise of Islamic Resistance (but in reality, it signifies Islamic terrorism).
The IRGC is a criminal terrorist organization with a global reach, shining wherever the name of terrorism is mentioned. The radical thugs of the IRGC are currently engaged in the domestic oppression and massacre of Iranians, and are expanding their global terrorism network abroad.
Strategic Export of Revolution
The core of the IRGC’s strategy has been to support non-state militant groups across the region, providing them with funding, weapons, and training to foment unrest and carry out attacks that align with Tehran’s strategic interests. This has been vividly demonstrated in their support for Hezbollah in Lebanon, various militia groups in Iraq, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and their ongoing military support to the Assad regime in Syria. Such actions are not merely regional security issues, but are illustrative of the IRGC’s broader strategy to reshape Middle Eastern politics, counter Western influence, and promote Iran as the preeminent regional power.
Global Terror Operations
Internationally, the IRGC’s Quds Force, the branch responsible for extraterritorial operations, has been actively involved in planning and executing operations that clearly fall within the realm of international terrorism. These operations range from the orchestration of bombings and assassinations in Europe and South America, to the provision of arms and tactical support to various militant groups. The infamous case of the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people, is a stark reminder of the deadly reach of the IRGC’s operations, directed and facilitated by its commanders.
Adapting to Modern Conflicts
In more recent years, the IRGC has adapted its methods and expanded its reach. It has increased its cyber capabilities, engaging in cyber espionage and attacks against foreign governments and industries, which constitutes a significant threat to global information security. The IRGC has also been implicated in military confrontations, such as the attacks on commercial shipping in the strategic waterways of the Middle East, which threaten global supply chains and international trade.
The international community must recognize the necessity of a robust, multi-faceted response to the IRGC’s activities. While the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization by nations like Canada represents a crucial step forward, it is an inadequate measure if not part of a broader, cohesive strategy that includes enhanced sanctions, targeted legal actions against IRGC affiliates, and a comprehensive international legal and diplomatic framework aimed at curtailing its operations globally.
Humanitarian and Ideological Counteractions
Moreover, nations must work together to address the humanitarian crises precipitated by the IRGC’s actions or IRGC-supported conflicts, particularly in war-torn regions like Syria and Yemen. The international community must prioritize diplomatic and humanitarian strategies to mitigate the suffering of civilians, who are often the most affected by the IRGC-supported conflicts. Additionally, the global community must counteract Iran’s propaganda by supporting democratic values and human rights narratives within Iran and among its regional allies.
Strengthening Global Alliances
It is also essential for countries to cut off the financial streams that support the IRGC’s extensive network; this includes stricter controls on international banking and finance channels to ensure that funds cannot be funneled to the IRGC or its proxies. Collaborative international efforts are required to dismantle the sophisticated networks that the IRGC uses to fund its operations, including those involving illicit trade and smuggling.
The global community’s response to the IRGC must also be ideological. It involves countering Iran’s extensive propaganda machinery, which justifies its actions and spreads its revolutionary ideology. Supporting counter-narratives within Iran and among its allies, emphasizing democratic values and human rights, is crucial.
In essence, the IRGC represents a profound challenge to international peace and stability, necessitating a concerted global response. A comprehensive approach that includes legal, financial, military, and ideological responses is vital. The international community must be unified and resolute in its actions against the IRGC to effectively curb its influence and operations. Failure to take decisive action risks not only further regional destabilization, but also increased global insecurity.
In confronting the IRGC, the international community must demonstrate both resolve and strategic foresight, ensuring that measures taken are comprehensive and sustained to dismantle the power structures that support the IRGC’s global terrorist activities. This is not merely a regional necessity, but a global imperative.
Erfan Fard is a counterterrorism analyst and Middle East Studies researcher based in Washington, DC. Twitter@EQFARD.
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Israel Strikes Houthi Targets in Yemen
Smoke rises after Israeli strikes near Sanaa airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi terrorist group in Yemen on Thursday, including Sanaa International Airport, and Houthi media said three people were killed.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was about to board a plane at the airport when it came under attack. A crew member on the plane was injured, he said in a statement.
The Israeli military said that in addition to striking the airport, it also hit military infrastructure at the ports of Hodeidah, Salif, and Ras Kanatib on Yemen’s west coast. It also attacked the country’s Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations.
Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said two people were killed in the strikes on the airport and one person was killed in the port hits, while 11 others were wounded in the attacks.
There was no comment from the Houthis, who have repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following the attacks that Israel will continue its mission until it is complete: “We are determined to sever this terror arm of Iran’s axis.”
The prime minister has been strengthened at home by the Israeli military’s campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon and by its destruction of most of the Syrian army’s strategic weapons.
The Israeli attacks on the airport, Hodeidah and on one power station, were also reported by Al Masirah TV.
Tedros said he had been in Yemen to negotiate the release of detained UN staff detainees and to assess the humanitarian situation in Yemen.
“As we were about to board our flight from Sanaa … the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured,” he said in a statement.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” he said, adding that he and his colleagues were safe.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the incident.
More than a year of Houthi attacks have disrupted international shipping routes, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys that have in turn stoked fears over global inflation.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on Monday over Houthi attacks against Israel, Israel‘s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said on Wednesday.
On Saturday, Israel‘s military failed to intercept a missile from Yemen that fell in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area, injuring 14 people.
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Controversial Islamic Group CAIR Chides US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for Denying Report of ‘Famine’ in Gaza
US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew. Photo: Alchetron.
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for casting doubt on a new report claiming that famine has gripped northern Gaza.
The controversial Muslim advocacy group on Wednesday slammed Lew for his “callous dismissal” of the recent Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) report accusing Israel of inflicting famine on the Gaza Strip. The organization subsequently asserted that Israel had perpetrated an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza.
“Ambassador Lew’s callous dismissal of this shocking report by a US-backed agency exposing Israel’s campaign of forced starvation in Gaza reminds one of the old joke about a man who murdered his parents and then asked for mercy because he is now an ‘orphan,’” CAIR said in a statement.
“To reject a report on starvation in northern Gaza by appearing to boast about the fact that it has been successfully ethnically cleansed of its native population is just the latest example of Biden administration officials supporting, enabling, and excusing Israel’s clear and open campaign of genocide in Gaza,” the Washington, DC-based group continued.
On Monday, FEWS Net, a US-created provider of warning and analysis on food insecurity, released a report detailing that a famine had allegedly taken hold of northern Gaza. The report argued that 65,000-75,000 individuals remain stranded in the area without sufficient access to food.
“Israel’s near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies to besieged areas of North Gaza Governorate” has resulted in mass starvation among scores of innocent civilians in the beleaguered enclave, the report stated.
Lew subsequently issued a statement denying the veracity of the FEWS Net report, slamming the organization for peddling “inaccurate” information and “causing confusion.”
“The report issued today on Gaza by FEWS NET relies on data that is outdated and inaccurate. We have worked closely with the Government of Israel and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report,” Lew wrote.
“At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this. We work day and night with the UN and our Israeli partners to meet humanitarian needs — which are great — and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible,” Lew continued.
Following Lew’s repudiation, FEWS NET quietly removed the report on Wednesday, sparking outrage among supporters of the pro-Palestinian cause.
“We ask FEWS NET not to submit to the bullying of genocide supporters and to again make its report available to the public,” CAIR said in its statement.
In the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, Israel has been repeatedly accused of inflicting famine in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Despite the allegations, there is scant evidence of mass starvation across the war-torn enclave.
This is not the first time that FEWS Net has attempted to accuse Israel of inflicting famine in Gaza. In June, the United Nations Famine Review Committee (FRC), a panel of experts in international food security and nutrition, rejected claims by FEWS Net that a famine had taken hold of northern Gaza. In rejecting the allegations, the FRC cited an “uncertainty and lack of convergence of the supporting evidence employed in the analysis.”
Meanwhile, CAIR has been embroiled in controversy since the onset of the Gaza war last October.
CAIR has been embroiled in controversy since the Oct. 7 atrocities. The head of CAIR, for example, said he was “happy” to witness Hamas’s rampage across southern Israel.
“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7,” CAIR co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad said in a speech during the American Muslims for Palestine convention in Chicago in November. “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in.”
CAIR has long been a controversial organization. In the 2000s, it was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. Politico noted in 2010 that “US District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented ‘ample evidence to establish the association’” of CAIR with Hamas.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.” CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim and asserted that it “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”
The post Controversial Islamic Group CAIR Chides US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for Denying Report of ‘Famine’ in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish Civil Rights Group Representing Amsterdam Pogrom Victims Slams Dutch Court for ‘Light Sentences’
Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters are guarded by police after violence targeting Israeli football fans broke out in Amsterdam overnight, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ami Shooman/Israel Hayom
The international Jewish civil rights organization legally representing more than 50 victims of the attack on Israeli soccer fans that took place in Amsterdam last month has joined many voices in lambasting a Dutch court for what they described as a mild punishment for the attackers.
“These sentences are an insult to the victims and a stain on the Dutch legal system,” The Lawfare Project’s founder and executive director Brooke Goldstein said in a statement on Wednesday. “Allowing individuals who coordinated and celebrated acts of violence to walk away with minimal consequences diminishes the rule of law and undermines trust in the judicial process. If this is the response to such blatant antisemitism, what hope is there for deterring future offenders or safeguarding the Jewish community.”
On Tuesday, a district court in Amsterdam sentenced five men for their participation in the violent attacks in the Dutch city against fans of the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv. The premeditated and coordinated violence took place on the night of Nov. 7 and into the early hours of Nov 8, before and after Maccabi Tel Aviv competed against the Dutch soccer team Ajax in a UEFA Europa League match. The five suspects were sentenced to up to 100 hours of community service and up to six months in prison.
The attackers were found guilty of public violence, which included kicking an individual lying on the ground, and inciting the violence by calling on members of a WhatsApp group chat to gather and attack Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. One man sentenced on Tuesday who had a “leading role” in the violence, according to prosecutors, was given the longest sentence — six months in prison.
“As someone who witnessed these trials firsthand, I am deeply disheartened by the leniency of these sentences,” added Ziporah Reich, director of litigation at The Lawfare Project. “The violent, coordinated attacks against Jews in Amsterdam are among the worst antisemitic incidents in Europe. These light sentences fail to reflect the gravity of these crimes and do little to deliver justice to the victims who are left traumatized and unheard. Even more troubling, they set a dangerous precedent, signaling to future offenders that such horrific acts of violence will not be met with serious consequences.”
The Lawfare Project said on Wednesday that it is representing over 50 victims of the Amsterdam attacks. It has also secured for their clients a local counsel — Peter Plasman, who is a partner at the Amsterdam-based law firm Kötter L’Homme Plasman — to represent them in the Netherlands. The Lawfare Project aims to protect the civil and human rights of Jewish people around the world through legal action.
Others who have criticized the Dutch court for its sentencing of the five men on Tuesday included Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights attorney and CEO of The International Legal Forum; Tal-Or Cohen, the founder and CEO of CyberWell; and The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel.
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