ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani defended the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday in a strongly worded speech hailing the force as the main defender of Iran, one day after United States President Donald Trump officially sanctioned the Guards as a designated foreign terrorist organization.
“Why was the IRGC created?” Rouhani asked rhetorically before proceeding to answer the question in front of dignitaries and commanders of the armed forces at the International Conference Centre in Tehran. “It was created to deal with terrorism and maintain security for the people of Iran… the IRGC was at the pinnacle of making sacrifices against the aggressors [during the eight years’ war].”
Rouhani was speaking at an event to mark National Nuclear Technology Day where he unveiled 114 new nuclear technological achievements by Iranian scientists in the fields of medicine, medical diagnosis, and quantum technology.
On Monday, the United States designated IRGC a foreign terrorist organization, accusing the force of masquerading as a legitimate military while “actively engaging in terrorism.” Tehran quickly responded, giving US Central Command (CENTCOM) the same label. This is unprecedented as it is the first time the US has given such a designation to a national armed force.
Rouhani catalogued years of terrorist activities in the first decade of the Iranian revolution when dozens of senior government officials were killed or assassinated. He said that over 17,000 Iranians were killed in a series of terrorist bombings in the country throughout the 1980s and credited the IRGC with securing the nation.
“The IRGC uprooted the terrorists who sought refuge with Saddam during the Imposed War [1980-1988] and now they are seeking refuge with the Zionists and global imperialism,” said the president, who presides over the Supreme National Security Council.
Rouhani went on to add that the IRGC was at the forefront of fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) in recent years. Iran “did not hesitate for an hour” to deploy its guards to defend neighbouring countries when they were on the brink of collapse as ISIS took swathes of territory. “When Erbil and Sulaimani were about to fall, the people of Iran and the IRGC did not hesitate for a moment,” Rouhani said, before proceeding to count the sacrifices of the IRGC in Syria and Iraq.
“America is still not ready to fight against ISIS… and gives sanctuary to the leaders of this group and is not ready to reveal the locations of ISIS leaders to regional states,” irritated Rouhani accused Washington, declaring, “You are at the pinnacle of terrorism in the world.”
Rouhani cited as an example the incident of Iran Air Flight 655, carrying 290 people, that was shot down by an American warship in the Gulf on July 3, 1988 as the war with Iraq was winding down.
The US blames Iran for hundreds of American deaths. “In Iraq, I can announce today, based on declassified US military reports, that Iran is responsible for the deaths of at least 608 American service members,” Special Representative for Iran and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State Brian Hook said on April 2. “This accounts for 17 percent of all deaths of US personnel in Iraq from 2003 to 2011. This death toll is in addition to the many thousands of Iraqis killed by the IRGC’s proxies.”
In the Iranian capital on Tuesday, lawmakers defiantly wore uniforms of the IRGC as they attended parliament and speaker Ali Larijani opened the session by saying the terror designation reveals American “stupidity.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inspects one of 114 new nuclear technological achievements unveiled on April 9, 2019. Photo: handout/Iranian presidency
The US sanctions have had no impact on Iran’s nuclear development, Rouhani said at the event where he unveiled a new generation centrifuge and said further developments are in the pipeline.
“If your intention with these sanctions was to reduce the military power of Iran, you should know that from last year until this year, you know yourself, we have obtained arms and missiles that you cannot even imagine,” he said in a message directed at Washington.
He admitted, however, that sanctions have had an impact on the people, “Yes, you succeeded in one thing. You were angry with the people of Iran and you imposed a pressure on their daily lives… If your intention was that the people of this land, and in particular the disadvantaged classes, was to make their food stuff more expensive and to make life more difficult, then you reached this objective.”
Since Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal last May and reimposed sanctions, the Iranian currency has lost up to 60 percent of its value, inflation has run wild, and oil exports have halved from 2.5 million barrel per day in April 2018 to just over 1.2 million bpd in February.
But Rouhani categorically denied that the sanctions have had an impact on Iran’s nuclear technology or military advances, including missile technology. “You are lying when you say that your sanctions have prevented Iran’s progress,” he said.
US sanctions have failed to stir internal division and instead have united the people, he said. “From today the popularity of the IRGC with the Iranian people has increased more than any other time,” Rouhani said.
The people’s patience has a limit, he added, saying they will not wait forever for Europe to uphold the nuclear deal and develop an effective tool to ensure Iran can continue to do business internationally.