London: Iran has the intention to establish an Iraqi model of its Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and is using the Faror Island facing the occupied UAE islands to train foreign fighters.
“The Revolutionary Guard is ready to use all its capacities to help Iraqis establish an IRGC in Iraq,” Former head of the Revolutionary Guard, General Mohsen Rafiq Doust was quoted by Khabar Online as saying.
Rafiq Doust said that IRGC would offer the Iraqis the experiences it had while establishing its own guard. Rafiq Doust is considered one of the oldest IRGC commanders in Iran. He also was a minister of the Revolutionary Guard between 1982 and 1989, before the seat was annulled.
His announcement came following last month’s visit of Iraqi officials form militias of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) to Iran and their meeting with a number of Iranian officials.
Also, Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Saleh Jokar told journalists last May that head of the Saraya al-Khorasani, Ali Yaseri had started negotiations to create Iraq’s Revolutionary Guard. “There is a need to establish a Revolutionary Guard in Iraq,” Jokar was quoted as saying by Iranian news agencies. “The institution of the IRGC has accomplished until now several achievements, and if any state wants to establish one, we will offer our help,” Jokar had said.
He indirectly mentioned that several PMF branches in Iraq, Syria and Yemen are planning to create their own revolutionary guard.
At the same time, Iranian senior cleric and head of the Ammar Strategic Base ,Mahdi Taeb had said the IRGC was ready to offer all its previous experiences to help create the Iraqi model of the revolutionary guard.
Several military experts in Iran say that the PMF militia is a prelude to the announcement of the Revolutionary Guard in Iraq, because the establishment of the IRGC had mostly relied on the enlistment of extremist religious parties following the start of Iran’s Revolution.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Commander of the IRGC Navy, General Ali Fadavi said his forces were training foreigners on its headquarters on Faror Island near the occupied UAE islands in the Arabian Gulf waters. Fadavi did not reveal their nationalities, but only said were “foreign fighters from the Axis of Resistance, who were trained by forces from the IRGC Navy located in these areas.”
The “Axis of Resistance” is a term used by Iranian officials to refer to the anti-Israeli and anti-Western alliance between Tehran, Lebanon’s so-called Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria.
This is the first time Iran announces the place where it was training foreign fighters. Last January, IRGC Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari had only mentioned that his forces had 200 thousands armed youth in five countries.
The name of Faror Island was mostly mentioned by the Iranian media following the killing of IRGC Navy Special Forces Commander Mohammad Naseri last month. Naseri’s death was announced by the IRGC, two days following the announcement of the killing of a large number of IRGC fighters during the battles of Khan Touman in the South of Aleppo.
However, IRGC says Naseri was killed during a chemical accident in the Faror Island, without disclosing additional information.
In an interview with Iran’s Fars News Agency published Monday, Fadavi mentioned that Nazeri was responsible of training fighters at the IRGC Navy Special Forces unit. Fadavi also announced that some of the foreign fighters could not speak the Farsi language.
Iran admits it was training military forces linked to what it calls “Axis of Resistance,” however, it refuses international reports accusing Tehran of supporting terrorism.