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Ali Alfoneh is a nonresident senior fellow at Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at The Atlantic Council. Mr. Alfoneh’s research areas include civil-military relations in Iran with a special focus on the role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Previously, Mr. Alfoneh was a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, resident fellow at American Enterprise Institute, a research fellow at the Institute for Strategy at the Royal Danish Defence College, and has taught political economy at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Southern Denmark.
IRGC targets domestic rivals in anniversary message
Commemorating the 39th anniversary of the March 30, 1979 referendum, which established the Islamic Republic, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) issued a statement warning against foreign threats against “the track record of the Islamic Republic.” The statement cautioned that “the front of Arroga
Mashregh News, a conservative Iranian outlet, quotes Mozahem al-Havit, a spokesman of the Arab Bedouins in Nineveh Governorate in Iraq, as saying that the United States has established its “largest” military base in Iraq and plans to install four mo
Khamenei defends Iran’s regional military interventions in New Year speech
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s March 21st New Year address mostly dwelt on domestic political issues. But the Iranian leader also made a few references to the most pressing foreign and security issues, none of which bode well for Iran’s relations with the United States. Moreover, Khamenei tried to calm growing public anger amongst Iranians about the country’s costly military interventions in the Middle East.
Ahmadinejad reveals Quds Force secrets after aide sent to jail
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s relations with the regime have reached a new low since the Judiciary imprisoned his associates Hamid Baqaei and Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei on embezzlement charges. Reacting to the Judiciary’s ruling, Ahmadinejad disclosed the charges against Baqaei in detail, which shed light on the operational mode of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC QF).
Transnational Shiite clergy’s challenge to the Islamic Republic
The March 6 arrest of Hossein Shirazi, son of prominent Iraqi Persian cleric Ayatollah Sadeq Shirazi, has triggered protests by non-Iranian Shiites – signifying the inherent tensions between the Iranian state and transnational Shiite clergy institutions.
Afghans fear IRGC may deploy Fatemiyoun fighters to Afghanistan
On March 2, Mohammad-Hashem Esmat-Allahi, who served as a senior adviser to former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, praised Afghan Shiite militiamen fighting in Syria.
“Iran has shared water [resources] with 12 neighboring countries. Drought can become a source of cooperation or friction,” Major General Yahya-Rahim Safavi, military adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said at the Water Diplomacy and Hydro-politics Conference on Tuesday.
The gravity of Safavi’s statement is best understood against the background of the water crisis in Iran and the country’s existing water disputes with neighboring countries.
Tehran fails to appreciate European efforts to preserve the nuclear deal
Sobh-e Sadeq, a weekly outlet affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), has lashed out at European powers for cooperating with Washington on the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. One of its lead articles on February 26 condemned the “shameless behavior of the European troika” – referring to France, Germany and Britain which are the three signatories of the Iran deal.
The extraterritorial operations Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC-QF) is supposedly a secret special operations unit. Yet, leading commanders of the Quds Force have aggressively been seeking public attention lately.
Iran’s negligible role in Iraq’s postwar reconstruction
While donor countries and organizations pledged $30 billion for Iraq’s reconstruction at an international conference held in Kuwait on February 14, Iran – which portrays itself as Iraq’s closest ally – made no financial commitments.
Tehran stands to lose in Syria’s postwar reconstruction
Tehran appears to be losing the race for Syria’s reconstruction despite all the blood, treasure and political capital the Islamic Republic has invested in the Assad regime’s survival over the past six years.
Marginalizing Religious Minorities Risks Fueling Radicalism in Iran
A senior aide to President Hassan Rouhani has revealed that “rogue and radical elements” within the government oppose the integration of Iran’s disenfranchised Sunni community into the sociopolitical fabrics of society.
There was a time when Lebanon was a Syrian protectorate occupied by the Syrian Army. The Syrian war over the past six years, however, has somewhat reversed the roles – transforming Lebanese Hezbollah into a leading military force in Syria. Hezbollah has not only deployed thousands of its forces to fight in Syria, but it has also begun recruiting Syrian nationals.
Yesterday’s edition of Jameeh-ye Farda, a reformist Iranian outlet, was published without an article written by its lead columnist Morteza Simiyari. The article, “Are We Hearing the Echo of the War? Russia, Instigator of War between Iran and Saudi Arabia,” was censored by the government, but it later surfaced on Gooya News, an independent news outlet in the Netherlands.
