DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has grown into a powerful force within the country’s theocracy, answering only to its supreme leader and overseeing its ballistic missile arsenal and missions overseas.
The force was in the spotlight Tuesday when Australia accused Iran of organizing two antisemitic attacks in the country. The allegation recalls earlier attacks and attempted assaults linked back to the Guard’s Quds Force, its expeditionary arm. “Quds” is a word in both Arabic and Farsi for Jerusalem and reflects one of the force’s key missions: confronting Israel.
Here’s more to know about the Guard.
Born out of a revolution
The Guard was born from Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution as a force meant to protect its Shiite cleric-overseen government and later enshrined in its constitution. It operated parallel to the country’s regular armed forces, growing in prominence and power during a long and ruinous war with Iraq in the 1980s. Though facing possible disbandment after the war, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei granted it powers to expand into private enterprise, allowing it to thrive.
Foreign operations key for the Guard
The Guard’s Quds Force was key in creating what Iran describes as its “Axis of Resistance” against Israel and the United States. It backed Syria’s former President Bashar Assad, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and other groups in the region, growing in power in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
U.S. officials say the Guard taught Iraqi militants how to manufacture and use especially deadly roadside bombs against U.S. troops there. The Quds Force, as well as …