Daily Times

Iranian Quds force recently came into the limelight once again after the escalation of conflict with Israel. Quds force fired around 20 rockets from Syrian Golan heights at Israeli military outposts. Most of these rockets were either intercepted or fell with Syrian territory itself. Israel responded with overwhelming force; it attacked dozens of Iranian targets across Syria in what the military said was the most extensive strike in the neighbouring country in decades.

Let’s have a look at this notorious force of Iran which is on a rampage across the whole Middle East. The Quds Force was established during the Iraq-Iran war (1980-1988) to undertake secret operations inside Iraq. But now, after almost three decades of its establishment, QF is considered as one of the most powerful security agencies in the Middle East. The Quds Force is one of the five branches of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) often referred to as IRGC-QF. QF can be best described as a hybrid organisation which performs the task of an intelligence agency and a special force both. The IRGC-QF is the Iranian mullah regime’s primary foreign action arm for executing its policy of supporting terrorist organisations and extremist groups around the world.

Quds Force not only operates to protect Iranian interest or to protect their country, but its primary motive is to push Iranian regimes agenda in the region. QF is always in search of an opportunity where it can destabilise a fragile state to make it an Iranian satellite like it did in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. The Quds Force is the secretive spearhead of Iran’s push for hegemony in the Middle East. It has been training and equipping terrorist groups around the Middle East for decades, and it is responsible for some of the most notorious terrorist acts in the world.

Let’s have a look at this notorious Iranian force, which is on a rampage across the whole Middle East. The Quds Force was established during the Iraq-Iran war to undertake secret operations inside Iraq. But now, after almost three decades of its establishment, QF is considered one of the most powerful security agencies in the Middle East

QF, apart from creating its proxies, also focuses on activating terrorist networks and training agents in sabotage, providing military and financial support to Islamist opposition organisations in Muslim countries, and operations against the Iranian opposition in exile. Force operatives also actively indulge in gathering of intelligence, the financing of terror groups and their operations on foreign soil, and the infiltration of foreign political parties, social groups and religious organisations. Its agents also engage in the surveillance of foreign government officials, religious officials and speakers to spot sympathisers who can be used either directly or as deep assets.

While dealing with its rival Sunni states in the region, Quds Force without any hesitation uses terrorist acts either directly through its agents or through its proxies like Khobar bombing of 1996 in Saudi Arabia. In recent years, the Quds Force exploited the democratic process most notably in Lebanon and Iraq using it to enhance the status of the terrorist organisations, the militias and radical Islamic groups supported by Iran. Quds Force successfully made its proxies a prominent political force in their home countries.

By doing this, Iran can anytime put immense pressure on the political leadership of these countries to accept Iran hegemony. Quds Force is not a rogue intelligence service of a country which even doesn’t take its political leadership into confidence. Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Suleimani reports directly to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. QF has offices in many Iranian embassies around the world, which operate as closed sections. Quds force showcase a classic example of state-sponsored terrorism.

Quds Force is an obstacle to the process of peacemaking and stabilisation in the Middle East. The United States Treasury Department in 2007 designated the Quds Force as a material supporter of terrorism but that’s not sufficient enough, the US administration should go further.

Quds Force along with its parent organisation, IRGC, should be on the State Department’s list of designated terrorist organisations. The efforts to counter QF support infrastructure for its proxy networks should also be a priority.

Moreover, the United States along with its regional strategic partners like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the other Sunni Arab states that share a common interest in countering Iran’s threatening ambitions should carve out an effective strategy to contain this Iranian agency. There should be joint efforts to put pressure on Quds Force to abandon its destructive role in the region.

The writer is a columnist for the Middle East and Af-Pak region and Editor of geopolitical news agency Viewsaround

Published in Daily Times, May 21^st 2018.