WarSclerotic

U.S. to ‘target Iran Revolutionary Guards’ in latest sanctions – Haaretz – Israel News.

Senior White House officials said the Obama administration is planning to target Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in the next round of sanctions meant to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, according to a report Wednesday in the New York Times.

The officials said the sanctions would single out the organization’s vast network of companies, banks and other entities, describing what they called a “systematic” effort to drive a wedge between the Iranian population and the Revolutionary Guards, which the West accuses of running Iran’s nuclear program and supporting militant Islamist organizations.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the international community was moving “fairly quickly” toward imposing broader sanctions on Iran, after Tehran said it had started making uranium enriched to 20 percent.

Obama said Iran’s refusal to accept a United Nations-brokered atomic fuel swap agreement suggested it was intent on trying to build nuclear weapons, despite its insistence its atomic activities were only for the peaceful generation of electricity.

Last month, a top adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought a proposal to expand the political voice of the civilian militia corps called the Basij. The motion passed easily, according to pro-government Web sites.

The Revolutionary Guard has always been a centerpiece of Iran’s Islamic establishment. But the latest door opened to its militia wing suggests a deepening policy role by Iran’s most hard-line groups as opposition forces grow bolder in their demands and the West considers tighter sanctions over its nuclear impasse with Tehran.

The Basij will again be out in force Thursday for expected protest marches to coincide with events marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Their attempts to crush the anti-government movement have been well documented since Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election last June, including the trademark Basiji motorcycle charges in protest crowds.

What’s perhaps less noticed – but with even deeper significance – is the evolving role of the huge Basij force from loosely organized Islamic vigilantes to a more cohesive force with increasing channels to Iran’s leadership and security apparatus.

“It’s clear that the Revolutionary Guard has been increasingly inserted in Iran’s decision-making equation during the crisis,” said Patrick Clawson, deputy director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Expanding the role of the Basij is a natural extension of this.

The Basij’s big brother, the Revolutionary Guard, has long been a pillar of Iran’s regime as a force separate from the ordinary armed forces. The Guard now has a hand in every critical area including missile development, oil resources, dam building, road construction, telecommunications and nuclear technology.

It also has absorbed the paramilitary Basij as a full-fledged part of its command structure – giving the militia greater funding and a stronger presence in Iran’s internal politics.

The chief of the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, often accuses dissidents of waging a soft revolution against the Islamic system and says forces such as the Basij are needed more than ever to quash internal threats.

Iran: Nuclear deal still ‘on the table’

Iran believes a nuclear fuel exchange with the West is still possible, state television said on Wednesday, a day after the Islamic Republic’s expansion of uranium enrichment drew a U.S. warning of more sanctions soon.

“The deal is still on the table,” Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said on English-language Press TV.

But he appeared to reiterate Iran’s demand for a simultaneous fuel swap on its soil – a likely non-starter for Western powers who want Tehran to send most of its low-enriched uranium abroad before it gets higher-grade material in return.

Salehi said Iran’s uranium could be sealed and under the “custody” of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] in the country, until it receives the fuel it needs for a medical research reactor.

This entry was posted on February 10, 2010 at 10:15 AM and is filed under Iran / Israel War. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.