IRGC Funding Sources: Washington Fights Iran Terrorism
The Iranian regime is currently suffering from a popular revolt against it. There are also other possibilities in the next few days, particularly that the European Union and Britain declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, which could place the IRGC in the ranks of ISIS.
The IRGC is Iran’s arm of military, political and economic power and its mission is to counter threats to Iran’s ruler.
On lists of terrorism
A few days ago, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that he was considering putting the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on the list of terrorists after Iran executed Alireza Akbari, a former Iranian Deputy Defense Minister who had settled in Britain and became a British citizen. Cleverly added that he was “lured” to return to Iran, where he “underwent a legal process that was notorious and arbitrary for the regime.”
The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program offered a reward of up to $15 million for information on the IRGC’s financial networks.
The program explained on its Twitter account yesterday: How can Iran buy all these weapons and ship them to Yemen? He added: Was the shipment from the Revolutionary Guard to the Houthis?
American, British, and Arab coalition forces stationed in Yemeni waters have thwarted many attempts to smuggle weapons to the Houthi terrorist militias in recent years.
Since 2019
The U.S. designated the IRGC in 2019 because of the IRGC’s long-standing support for militant groups such as Hezbollah and the Houthi group in Yemen.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have urged the EU to place the IRGC on its list of terrorist organizations and pointed to the IRGC’s role in quelling the recent protests in Iran following the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who was in the custody of the country’s morality police when she died.
The European Parliament has passed a resolution in favor of designating the IRGC as a terrorist group, but EU member states should agree to such a move.
A report by Iran International, a London-based IRIN news channel, revealed that the IRGC was exploiting a loophole in Iran’s banking system to redirect money to fund itself and support terrorist activities around the world in an operation dubbed “cyber caves,” which provides the IRGC with funds to buy weapons and send them to its own arms.
The Reasons for the Confiscation of IRGC Funds
Hassan Hosheman, an Iranian political analyst, said that Iranian officials, especially leaders of the military and security services, do not have foreign funds and assets in foreign banks or real estate registered in their name. However, in recent years, demands by Iranian opposition parties to prosecute the wives and children of officials in Western countries have increased, which has opened the door to searching for sources of funding for the Revolutionary Guard.
In a special statement, he confirms that officials are now assuming new identities to manage their financial affairs abroad, in addition to the authorities’ way of evading sanctions by establishing fictitious companies. The fake companies played a big role in providing Iran with technology from Western countries, including car engines made in Iran, and the use of sophisticated weapons.
