There is no greater source of pride in this world than martyrdom. —The late Haj Qassam Soleimani, 2014. P
olitical and religious rulers in Tehran insist that Iran is the real Mecca, or center of the Muslim world. Iran’s leaders feel morally compelled to spread Iran’s revolution around the globe, as Khamenei promised. Some observers trace the Qods Force’s origins to Operation Ajax in 1953, when revolutionaries concluded that politics could not serve as an agent of change.
Today, with his ever-growing prestige and power in the Shia world, Iran’s supreme leader uses foreign policy to boost the country’s status, expand its power base in the Middle East, export the Iranian revolution, and confront its enemies. Iran uses the Guards to project influence well beyond the Middle East. Guard personnel are involved in foreign embassies, charities, and religious organizations. After its revolution, Iran developed close relations with several anti-American regimes, including the left-wing governments in Cuba, Nicaragua, and, later, Venezuela. Since 1979, Iran has openly vowed to export the regime’s revolution.
The mullahs and the Guards have upheld this pledge, rooted in Khomeini’s philosophy. They hail the Guards as custodians of many causes, from liberating Jerusalem and safeguarding Islam to serving as the international headquarters for what they call the global resistance movement. The Guards project Iran’s influence on the Arabic-speaking side of the Persian Gulf.
The Guards recruited non-Iranian personnel soon after the 1979 revolution. The organization also extended its influence across the Arab Middle East during its war with Iraq. By 2018, Iran controlled or heavily influenced four Middle Eastern capitals—Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus, and Sanaa. Beyond their military actions, the Guards use psychological operations to stir unrest in Shia-populated parts of the Middle East.
Iran’s regional power is entrenched, bold, and dynamic. The Guards have built a land bridge through Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, fulfilling an ancient Persian and modern Iranian strategic goal of creating a contiguous route to the Mediterranean Sea. According to Major General Jafari, the Guards’ foreign mission is to aid revolutionary and resistance movements and the oppressed worldwide.
Iranian leaders say they are confident that the American image is sullied, particularly in the greater Middle East, creating opportunities for Iran. As quoted by the state-run Tasnim News Agency, Khamenei said in spring 2020, “The Americans won’t stay in Iraq and Syria; they’ll be expelled.” According to Khamenei, American leaders, namely President Trump and Secretary Pompeo, have crafted a foreign policy loathed for “its warmongering, helping notorious governments, training terrorists, [and] unconditional support for oppression,” which makes the United States “abhorred by a major part of the world.” Iranian intelligence operatives and diplomats work closely together abroad. Qods Force personnel are well represented in embassies.
As mentioned earlier, the Qods Force is an elite, externally deployed unit of the Guards. Its personnel, particularly its leadership, are among the most ideologically committed and highly trained members of the Guard. Like other branches of the Guards, it is charged with ensuring the regime’s survival. Unlike other branches, its central role is to propel Iran toward becoming the most significant power in the region. For several years, the leader of the Qods Force was Haj Qassam Soleimani, who commanded multinational armies. He was killed on President Trump’s orders in January 2020 and replaced by Brig. Gen. Esmail Ghani. In earlier assignments, Ghani served as Soleimani’s second-in-command and worked on the IRGC staff. The U.S. government has stated that the Qods Force is a “branch of the IRGC that conducts sensitive covert operations abroad, including terrorist attacks, assassinations, and kidnappings, and is believed to have sponsored attacks against coalition forces in Iraq.”
Major General Jafari affirmed in 2016 that nearly two hundred thousand Shia youths from across the Middle East were organized and armed under the command of the Qods Force, which supports non-Iranian
Shia by providing arms, funding, and paramilitary training. While estimates of the personnel strength of the Qods Force vary, its members are posted in Iranian embassies, charities, and religious and cultural institutions that support Shia Muslims. While providing some humanitarian support, Qods Force personnel also engage in paramilitary and destabilizing operations. Sometimes personnel hatch assassination plots from within embassies. Iran’s proxies, such as Hezbollah, have also previously targeted Israelis abroad, in Europe, India, and Thailand. Qods Force operatives likely participated in the lethal attack on a Jewish center in Argentina in 1994, an event some journalists call Latin America’s 9/11. The Guards probably directed the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia and many insurgent attacks in Iraq since 2003.
In Syria and Iraq, children supporting the Islamic State and children supporting Iran sometimes fight each other. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Hailey noted that Tehran has produced many films and television shows to recruit children. The Guards-produced films encourage boys to become “the protectors of the holy places” in Syria. Similarly, the Islamic State recruits boys to become “Cubs of the Caliphate” in Syria. Similarly, the Islamic State recruits boys to become “Cubs of the Caliphate.”
