IRGC Quds Force chief: Our arms caches are at Hashid al-Shabi’s disposal

National Council of Resistance of Iran

Iran’s Defense Ministry making weapons for Iraq round the clock
Rouhani admits Iran’s economy allocated to warmongering in Iraq, Syria

Qassem Suleimani, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force, in his remarks on July 10th once again acknowledged the mullahs’ warmongering in Iraq, killing innocent people and launching religious wars.
“Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes, commander of the Hashid al-Shabi was able to get hold of the [Iran’s] arms caches… after they requested the IRGC’s sole Sukho fighter jet squadron was placed at Iraq’s disposal instantly. Thousands of tons of weapons were given to them by [Iran]. [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei] always emphasized the government … should not withhold any support from Iraq… and therefore Iran’s Defense Ministry was making weapons for Iraq round the clock and sending them,” he said.
“The Lebanese Hezbollah played a major role in the victories of Iraq and Syria… it was the Hezbollah that sacrificed many martyrs and placed all its experience before the Hashid al-Shabi. I kiss the hands of [Hezbollah chief] Hassan Nassrallah… today the Iraqi Army is heading to become a ‘Hezbollah’ army,” Suleimani added.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also acknowledged how he has placed the country’s economy at the disposal of warmongering in Iraq and Syria.
“We supported the people of Iraq and Syria while being under the harshest of conditions… Who provides the salary and weapons of these people? All the weapons Iraq needed… and who provided the money while being under sanctions? It is the same about Syria. A missile has been fired from our soil and targeted the terrorists’ center… however, who designed and built this missile? The government built this missile, the Defense Ministry built this missile… who provided the money? The government’s economic branch is providing the money… a major effort was carried out [during my first term],” he said. (IRGC-associated Fars news agency – July 11)
These remarks prove once again how despite their increasing power struggle, the Iranian regime’s various factions by no means differ in exporting terrorism, fundamentalist and warmongering. Until this regime is in power the mullahs will never forgo their meddling in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Bahrain. This is an inseparable branch of the mullahs’ survival strategy. Designating the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization, and expelling this entity and their proxies from the region is a necessity in establishing peace and stability across the Middle East.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
July 12, 2017

The West Must Realize Rouhani Isn't An Agent Of Change In Iran

Support for opposition organizations like the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the MEK seems to be on the rise

 By: Tom Ridge

 

Jul 5, 2017-- As Hassan Rouhani commences his second term as president, the West must realize that he is not and has never been as agent of change in Iran.
In the run-up to his election, Rouhani routinely invoked “violence and extremism” in his campaign rhetoric to bolster opposition to his leading opponent, Ebrahim Raisi, in the ongoing roleplay where the incumbent represents a more moderate approach than his acknowledged hardline alternative. This despite the fact that Rouhani had already demonstrated during his first term that he had no intention of challenging the violence and extremism of the clerical regime.
Many Iranians boycotted the presidential election to draw international attention to the fundamental lack of choice in a system where even self-described moderates like Rouhani are vetted by unelected clerics and judiciary officials based on their loyalty to the Supreme Leader and the ruling theocracy.
The Iranian people have always recognized Rouhani as a veteran regime insider who was a senior security official during the systematic execution of 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988, many of whom were supporters of the main opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).
In 2015, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany brokered a deal with the Iranian regime, imposing restrictions on the Iranian regime’s nuclear program in exchange for tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief. The agreement has rightly been criticized for offering too many concessions to Iran’s ruling theocracy, while effectively abandoning the original goal of definitively halting permanently the mullahs’ march to nuclear weapons.
This approach by the previous administration was prompted in large part by the expectation that Iranian behavior and U.S.-Iran relations would improve under Rouhani’s presidency. Wrong, it was a gross miscalculation. It didn’t and they didn’t.
Tehran’s anti-Western rhetoric has intensified, backed up by illicit ballistic missile tests and public declarations of readiness for war by officers of the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
IRGC military and financial support for the murderous Assad regime has continued, as has its arming and funding of the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon. And in Iraq, the regime in Tehran wield more influence than the United States, despite all the blood and treasure we have invested in that country since 2003.
At home, dual nationals have been nabbed and put behind bars for use as bargaining chips. They join thousands of Iranians incarcerated on political charges and subjected to torture during interrogation. Executions take place en masse and with little warning, while other prisoners risk death from abuse and the absence of basic medical care and sanitation.
Not only did the Rouhani administration implement these abuses, it also oversaw a spike in death sentences. More than 3,000 people were executed during his first term in office, including political prisoners, women and juveniles.
Less than a week before the election, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a statement practically begging Iranians to vote regardless of their political views. But by phrasing his call in terms of “maintaining the regime’s authority,” he effectively added to the incentive for a boycott by all those rejecting that authority.
Contrary to the usual regime propaganda about large voter turnout, Iranians stayed away, rejecting choice between the white and the black turban. In doing so, they expressed more than just general frustration with a political system in which both factions act against the interests of the people. They also exhibited support for the alternatives to those factions – alternatives that have enough social capital and public support to organize a boycott, yet are barred from participating in elections or, in many cases, from even speaking publicly about their secular, democratic platforms.
Support for opposition organizations like the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ) and the MEK seems to be on the rise. For example, I and many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are planning to attend an international convention in Paris, which is expected to draw upwards of 100,000 Iranian expatriates from around the world and will be broadcast live to millions of Iranians. Even though support for the MEK can be punished with a death sentence inside Iran (as was the case in the brutal massacre of 1988), the willingness to take such a risk should tell us something about how limited the options are for regime-sanctioned political expression.
And it should also tell us how fragile that regime is, and how effectively the international community can encourage the democratic transformation of Iran by supporting the democratic alternatives to the current regime. Time and again, the U.S. and its allies have bought in to the moderate versus hardliner narrative, despite proof to the contrary. This time, let’s get it right.

 Mr. Ridge was the nation’s first homeland security secretary and former Pennsylvania governor.

The West Must Realize Rouhani Isn't An Agent Of Change In Iran

Mr. Ridge was the nation’s first homeland security secretary and former Pennsylvania governor.

As Hassan Rouhani commences his second term as president, the West must realize that he is not and has never been as agent of change in Iran.

In the run-up to his election, Rouhani routinely invoked “violence and extremism” in his campaign rhetoric to bolster opposition to his leading opponent, Ebrahim Raisi, in the ongoing roleplay where the incumbent represents a more moderate approach than his acknowledged hardline alternative. This despite the fact that Rouhani had already demonstrated during his first term that he had no intention of challenging the violence and extremism of the clerical regime.

Many Iranians boycotted the presidential election to draw international attention to the fundamental lack of choice in a system where even self-described moderates like Rouhani are vetted by unelected clerics and judiciary officials based on their loyalty to the Supreme Leader and the ruling theocracy.

The Iranian people have always recognized Rouhani as a veteran regime insider who was a senior security official during the systematic execution of 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988, many of whom were supporters of the main opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).

In 2015, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany brokered a deal with the Iranian regime, imposing restrictions on the Iranian regime’s nuclear program in exchange for tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief. The agreement has rightly been criticized for offering too many concessions to Iran’s ruling theocracy, while effectively abandoning the original goal of definitively halting permanently the mullahs’ march to nuclear weapons.

This approach by the previous administration was prompted in large part by the expectation that Iranian behavior and U.S.-Iran relations would improve under Rouhani’s presidency. Wrong, it was a gross miscalculation. It didn’t and they didn’t.

Tehran’s anti-Western rhetoric has intensified, backed up by illicit ballistic missile tests and public declarations of readiness for war by officers of the Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Rouhani Admits That IRGC Controls Iran's Economy

 Sunday, 25 June 2017 14:24

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in his remarks on Thursday once again referred to the wide rifts in the regime’s senior ranks.

“The fact that rifts are created in our society is due to our lack of tolerance. There are who prefer everyone to think like we do… Even the messenger [of Islam] was told you are not above the people to order them, and you are only obligated to show them the way, to allow each individual to choose for themselves. However, there are those who think they should issue orders upon people and that people are to obey their orders,” he said.

“In the [Ahmadinejad] government portions of the country’s economy was placed under the control of the military and security apparatuses under the pretext of privatization,” he said in reference to the Revolutionary Guards. He described these entities as the ‘armed government’ and acknowledged the fact that private sector cannot compete with them.

“Announcing the Principle 44 policies was aimed at placing the economy into the people’s hands, and for the government to not be involved in the economy. But what did we do? We handed a part of the economy controlled by the ‘unarmed government’ and handed it to an ‘armed government’. This is not privatization,” he said.

“They were afraid of that unarmed government. Now they have handed the economy to an armed government that controls all the media and everything else. No one dares to challenge it,” Rouhani added.

Elements of the faction loyal to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had already launched their assault on Rouhani through their remarks.

“Today, we see people portray issues in a variety of methods, and there are those who don’t realize who is the enemy? Some of our senior officials are repeatedly saying what is the Revolutionary Guards? What is the Basij? Why the crying? We want happiness and concerts… They portray the US as very pleasant and say America is no longer the Great Satan… however, they don’t dare express it so clearly, and yet they depict those who continue the struggle as hardliners and extremists,” said Mohsen Ejei.

“Now we have the right to say when the president said the military should have nothing to do with politics and economics, he was giving coordinates to the enemy to sanction the IRGC… The US Senate is seeking to sideline the IRGC’s activities,” according to a daily affiliated to the IRGC Basij.

This rise in political disputes resembles a deep rift after last month’s election, a divide that is increasing by the day.