IRGC Goal: Sink US Warships

Even though during the last nine months Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani and his moderate foreign minister have been repeating their message directly or implicitly that they desire to reduce tensions with the US and establish peaceful relations with the West and the country’s neighbors in the Persian Gulf region, the commanders and generals of the influential Revolutionary Guards view Iran’s place in the world differently. The top navy commander of the Guards force now speaks of plans to sink American warships. The former commander of the Mohammad Rasool Allah defended the force’s military presence in Syria and a former Guards commander spoke of a major victory for the Islamic republic in Syria’s civil war.

Earlier this week, the Guards navy commander clearly stated that the IRGC force dreamt of destroying parts of the US military. Speaking to Guard-affiliated Fars news agency, commander Ali Fadavi said, “The Americans and the whole world know that one of the operational goals of the Guards is to destroy the US navy.”

He described the purpose of sinking American warships in the Persian Gulf in these words: “The provision of US Air capability in the battlefield is with the warplanes on US aircraft carriers. So it is natural for us to want to sink these ships.”

He could not have been more direct and clear in stating the intention of the Guards in militarily engaging the Pentagon when he said, “Eliminating, destroying and sinking American warships have been, are and will be part of our plans.” He speculated that the time necessary to sink the humongous US warships would be 50 seconds!

It is ironic that while Tehran has not been able to withstand international sanctions against it and has consequently concluded to retreat from its expanding nuclear program, observers view such bravado military comments exaggerated and impractical, adding that the rationale for making them is to derail Rouhani administration’s diplomatic overtures and efforts with the West.

Rouhani is the first Iranian president to have spoken on the phone with his American counterpart since the 1979 Islamic revolution while his foreign minister, Zarif, has had many bilateral and multi-lateral talks with his counterpart US secretary of state John Kerry.

Since Rouhani’s presidency and the country’s supreme leader ayatollah Khamenei’s emphasis on retreating on the nuclear issue through the famous “heroic flexibility” message that he publicly announced last year, they have seldom made any serious critical statements against the nuclear talks and have even generally supported the new policy and engagements. But it appears that in other strategic issues of the regime, including relations with the US and the place of the regime in the developments of the Middle East, they have other ideas and goals.

This may explain the remarks and posturing that Iranian military officers have been making regarding Syria, which go much beyond the statements of the political leaders in Rouhani’s administration.

Speaking publicly in northern Tehran, Guards general Hossein Hamedani, the former commander of the Mohammad Rasool Allah Tehran IRGC Force recently expressly spoke of the involvement of Iran’s military in the Syrian crisis and emphasized, “One of the directives of the supreme leader regarding Syria is the reduction of civilian deaths among people and even the armed forces.”

He then continued with these words, “Great success has been achieved in Syria through such measures as tactical engagements in civil strives, separating people from the armed forces, purges and the permanent establishment of security in regions.”

Iran’s diplomatic channels have defended the international peaceful measures to resolve the Syrian crisis. But the senior commanders of the Revolutionary Guards do not seem to share this view. General Hamedani for example, has expressly defended the military presence of Hezbollah – under the command of Iran’s Khamenei – in Syria and has referenced US military plans to intervene in Syria last year because of Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people to say, “In those days, the prime minister of Israel told the Americans that Iran’s reach in the region was supposed to have been ended. Unfortunately, not only did that not happen, Iran created a second Hezbollah in Syria.”

Tehran’s Islamic regime created the Shiite para-military force in Lebanon known as Hezbollah in the 1980s at the height of the civil war raging in that country. For the next three decades, it has used this group for its military involvement in the region. In the Syrian civil war, not only have the military units of the Ghods force – the external arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards – entered the civil war on behalf of Bashar Assad, but Lebanese Hezbollah too is on the ground and has fought a number of battles in support of the Baathist regime.

Assad’s opponents in the US, the European Union, Persian Gulf countries and Turkey have been promoted the removal of Assad and the formation of a coalition government but the Islamic republic of Iran has opposed this plan.

Individuals such as general Safavi, the former IRGC commander, view developments in Syria as victories for the Iranian regime. Ali Khamenei’s advisor on military affairs this week said in the city of Isfahan, “The policy of the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and European countries to topple Bashar Assad have clearly failed. This is a strategic defeat for the West, Arabs and Zionists while being a big victory for the Islamic republic of Iran. Iran’s force of influence has now extended from the Iran, Iraq and Syria to the Mediterranean now and this is the third time that Iran’s power of influence has reached that region.”

In his remarks, he also issued a veiled threat to Israel when he said, “Our frontline is no longer Chalamche. Our defense line is now southern Lebanon with Israel. Our strategic defense depth has now reached the edge of the Mediterranean right on top of Israel. The West is concerned about the expansion of our influence from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.”

The expansion of al-Qaida’s para-military presence in the anti-Assad camp in Syria and the intensification of differences among the opposition groups there have resulted in a drop in Western military and financial support for Assad’s opponents. This has resulted the strengthening of Assad’s forces. Assad is preparing himself for the upcoming presidential elections in his country but has vowed not to easily relinquish his power.