Thanks to an accident of official schedules, last Tuesday, almost at the same time that President Obama was charging the Islamic Republic with plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington, Iran’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei was announcing “the imminent end of America.”
The coincidence was uncanny because Khamenei was unleashing his lava of hate against the American “Great Satan” at the headquarters of the Qods Corps, the very body named by Obama as the architect of the alleged plot. Standing by Khamenei in suitably solemn attitudes was Qods Corps Commander Gen. Qassem Suleimani, flanked by some of his closest associates, all named in connection with the plot.
The Qods Corps, or “The Jerusalem Army,” is an autonomous unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps under the direct supervision of the Khamanei. Created by the late Ayatollah Khomeini in 1984, its stated task is to help “ export the revolution” throughout the world.
The new force’s slogan was “ On Our Way to Jerusalem, via Baghdad!” The idea was that once Jerusalem had been “ liberated” and Israel wiped off the map, the Khomeinist revolution would spread beyond the Middle East with the ultimate aim of destroying the United States as “ the principal manifestation of Satan’s power” in the contemporary world.
Iran’s Khomeinist rulers have always been fascinated by the idea of “exporting revolution.” Initially, this was limited to propaganda and financial support for radical groups friendly to the Islamic Republic.
In 1982, however, Khomeini decided to create a network of foreign radical groups, known under the generic term “Hezbollah” ( Party of Allah) directly controlled by Tehran.
Very quickly, Hezbollah branches were set up in more than a dozen Muslim countries, with sub-branches among Shiite communities across the globe.
Over the years, the Qods Corps absorbed these various organizations, along with the foreign intelligence department of the Revolutionary Guard.
Initially focused on Islamic radical groups alone, the Qods Corps gradually extended its ideological span to cover a range of non-religious groups such as the Japanese Red Army, the Peruvian Shining Path, the Colombian FARC, the Nicaraguan Sandinista, the Armenian Secret Army and the Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party, and the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine, among others.
The Qods Corps is believed to employ around 12,000 people and runs a number of training centres inside and outside Iran.
Abroad, the corps maintains training camps in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and the Sudan. Last August, Qods opened a new center in Syria, led by Brig. Gen. Muhammad-Reza Zahedi, to train Syrian forces in crowd control and the terrorization of President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents.
In Lebanon, Qods has carved an army of around 10,000 men under the banner of Hezbollah to prepare for war against Israel.
For Qods commanders, Iraq and Afghanistan are special targets. The unit operating in Iraq is led by Gen. Hussein Mussavi and controls a number of armed groups including the Mahdi Army, the Ramadan Corps and the Brigades of the Right, with the aim of killing as many Americans as possible and, eventually, driving the US out of Iraq “in humiliation.”
Qods has a similar strategy in Afghanistan, where it operates through the Ansar (Companions) Corps. It also provides the Taliban with money, a range of weapons, including IEDs and, more importantly perhaps, safe haven.
Qods is a strong supporter of the Palestinian Hamas movement both in terms of cash support and arms deliveries. However, divisions within the Hamas leadership have so far prevented it from offering Qods a direct presence in Gaza. While Hamas has maintained a degree of independence from Qods, another Palestinian group, the Islamic Jihad, has developed into an arm of the Iranian regime in all but name.
Qods Commander Gen. Suleimani advertises his commitment to “liberating Jerusalem” by wearing a checkered scarf of the Palestinians. He also carries a rosary of beads supposedly molded from soil taken from Jerusalem.
Gen. Suleimani is reported to be the only Iranian military commander with unlimited access to the Khamenei.
He is also the most secretive. Unlike other Revolutionary Guard commanders who like going around and making speeches, Suleimani cultivates the image of a recluse.
Serving in Qods is a fast track to the top of the Iranian leadership. A former Qods commander, Brig. Ahmad Vahidi, is now the defense minister. The Revolutionary Guard Commander Gen. Muhammad-Ali Aziz-Jaafari is also a former Qods officer. Commanders of three of the six army corps that constitute the Revolutionary Guard are former Qods officers.
Qods officers have also penetrated the diplomatic service. Today, at least a dozen of them work as ambassadors across the globe, including such sensitive postings as Russia.
Qods has been behind the assassination of more than 100 Iranians dissidents in exile and is suspected of involvement in dozens of terrorist operations in more than 20 countries.
Its sleeper cells are believed to be present across the globe, often operating within Shi’ite communities of Lebanese and Syrian origins as well as Palestinians.
Relations between the Qods Corps and al Qaeda have always been problematic. Until 9/11 al Qaeda stood firmly with the Taliban in a campaign against Iran as a heretic Shiite power. With the fall of the Taliban in Kabul, however, al Qaeda has had to court Iran as an alternative escape route and safe haven. One of Osama bin Laden’s sons, Sa’ad, has been hosted by Iran along with one of the terrorist leader’s wives.
Khamenei and Qods represent Iran as the vehicle for a global Khomeinist revolution, which has its own agenda. It is, therefore, quite possible that Qods is used in pursuit of goals that do not necessarily reflect the interests of Iran as a nation.