On Wednesday, February 2, 2022, the U.S. Representative Office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI-US) held a press conference in Washington, DC, to unveil detailed aspects of the proxy naval terror units and operations run by the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC-QF). The NCRI’s representative in the United States, Ms. Soona Samsami, opened the press conference and provided an overview of the new information and its policy implications for the U.S. and the world.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, the deputy director of the NCRI-US, followed by providing details of the NCRI’s revelation using charts, graphs, satellite imagery, and other information about the new game plan of the IRGC-QF and the newly formed naval units consisting of foreign mercenaries, including the Houthis’ (Ansarullah) from Yemen. Text of Ms. Samsami’s remarks follow below.
Good morning,
Welcome to our press conference in Washington, DC. My name is Soona Samsami, and I am the U.S. Representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
Today, the National Council of Resistance of Iran will provide you with information obtained inside Iran by the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) organization about the Quds Force, as the IRGC’s extraterritorial arm for terrorism, recruiting mercenaries for newly created, armed, and trained terrorist units to attack ships and maritime targets in the region.
After the elimination of Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, which weakened the Quds Force’s ability to directly encroach in the countries of the region, the IRGC’s capacity to intrude in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria has been on the decline. To compensate for this failure, the IRGC has turned to increase intervention in Yemen, especially escalating naval terrorist activities and threatening the international shipping on its shores.
The command headquarters of the Quds Force in Yemen recruits Houthi forces and sends them to Iran for training, where the IRGC-QF conducts training in specialized naval courses for its Yemeni, Iraqi, Syrian, Lebanese, and African mercenaries, who are then dispatched to their home countries to form proxy naval units.
Today, you will learn, for the first time, about details of the IRGC-QF’s formation of terrorist naval units, including the cycle of recruitment and training for terrorist operations by proxy forces, as well as the cycle of sending weapons and other logistical support to them.
The continued offers of concessions by Western countries and lack of accountability for the Iranian regime’s terrorist operations as well as its killings at home, have emboldened Tehran to step up its rogue behavior, creating mayhem in the region.
Regardless of what the Iranian regime might do with its nuclear weapons program and its negotiations with the P 5+1, Tehran must be held accountable for its proxy war in the region, its terrorism, its development of ballistic missiles, and its egregious violations of human rights and suppression of Iranian citizens engaged in ongoing protests.
Tehran’s latest game plan to advance its terrorist agenda by prioritizing mercenaries and stepping up its regional mayhem is intended to project power and cover its fundamental weakness inside Iran. Since December 2017, there have been eight major uprisings, as well as successive protests by various sectors of Iranian society demanding fundamental change.
The regime is investing lavish amounts of money and resources for training, funding, and arming its proxies, while a vast majority of the Iranian people live below the poverty line.
Any conciliatory approach, especially since Raisi has taken office, would lead to Tehran’s increased defiance.
This new information is added evidence that none of the sanctions against the regime should be lifted until it has stopped all its rogue behavior abroad as well as its suppression of the Iranian people at home. On the contrary, additional sanctions are warranted as a result of the Iranian regime’s escalation of violence in the region and stepped-up repression at home.
The outcome of one year of negotiations and conciliation with the Iranian regime has been an unprecedented rise in the number of executions in Iran, escalation of terrorist operations throughout the region, and rapid dash towards building the nuclear bomb, while enforcement of sanctions has been eased. Absent a decisive policy, the Iranian regime has taken the most advantage of the negotiations.
Source » einnews