IRGC Commander’s Recommendation: Take Hostages

A former top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezai, who is now the secretary of the exclusive State Expediency Council (a group set up to resolve differences among the three branches of the Iranian government) and has returned to the IRGC military force, warned in a televised program that not only did the US not have the capability to militarily confront Iran but went beyond that and said that if the two countries clashed, at least a thousand Americans would be caught prisoner during the very first week of an encounter and for each of whom Iran would demand several billion US Dollars from the US for their release. He also mentioned this approach as a way to resolve Iran’s economic problems.

Rezai prides himself in being an economist and his comments quickly became the butt of jokes in the virtual space. His earlier presidential aspirations had tuned into jokes by Iranian Internet users in the past and the new comments have returned him to the limelight.

At Least A Thousand American Prisoners

Reza appeared on a special television news program on Saturday as the nuclear talks in Vienna were said to be finalizing the agreement between the 6 major powers and Iran and talked about sanctions, relations with the US and the nuclear talks. Appearing in civilian clothes rather than military uniform, Rezai proclaimed that the US was after “disarming” Iran and added that the US wanted to “impose a war on Iran, after forcing Iran to dismantle its long-range missiles. He asked Iran’s negotiations team to fully comply with the “red lines that have been set by the supreme leader” and claimed that if they did, the “whole Iranian nation” would support it.

In a different part of his interview, Rezai asserted that talks were the only choice the US had and then said, “The world should appreciate the smiling face of Mr. Rouhani and Zarif. Mr. Rouhani and Zarif smiled 13 years ago and you did not take them seriously but did the 20,000 centrifuges and the 20% enrichment process. We recommend that you take Mr. Rouhani’s smile seriously now and not have to deal with 100,000 centrifuges. We speak with sincerely while you have much animosity with us. We are serious. Take the smiles seriously and stop playing games. Don’t waste the time of the Iranian nation and yourself. Let the talks proceed as quickly as possible and do not create obstacles for them.”

But the most controversial part of his comments came at the end of the interview in response to a question. He warned, “The US should know that from a military perspective it cannot do anything against Iran. As a soldier and a guardian of the revolution I promise that if the Americans have bad intentions against Iran and think of a military attack, they should be sure that in the first week of a confrontation we will take at a thousand prisoners and then to free them they will have to give us a few million Dollars for each. Our economic problems may also be solved through this. They must get that (a military attack) out of their mind.”

While Tanbark website, which is run under his direction, highlighted Raza’s threats, other websites affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards refrained from highlighting this part of his comments. On the virtual social networks, his remarks were either ridiculed or taken as a joke.

Many criticized Raza’s threats and questioned the necessity for a senior political figure to make such threatening remarks at a time when the nuclear talks were in their concluding phase, something which in the minds of Americans would equate Iran with extremist groups such as the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

Others pointed to attempts by Rezai in the past to portray himself as an economist and expressed surprise that he would propose military solutions to solve economic issues, comparing them to actions that were pursued by pirates and terrorist groups.

Rezai was the top IRGC commander during the 8-year Iran-Iraq war. In 1997 he entered politics and received a PhD in economics from Tehran University. He has been the secretary of the State Expediency Council for the last 20 years. Last year, he wrote a letter to Iran’s supreme leader ayatollah Khamenei and requested that he return to the IRGC force, which the ayatollah approved.

Rezai has lead a controversial military and civilian life. One relates to his son’s defection to the US in the 1990s, after which he was said he had returned to Iran and ultimately his dead body had been found in a hotel in Dubai. He has been on a wanted Interpol list for being an accomplice in the bombing incident of a Jewish center in Argentina.