[Marxism] CNN: US ckaims Iran revolutionary goals now patrol Persian Gulf

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Iran is trying to send a signal that it is ready for any military
eventuality and that it is prepared to defend itself aggressively." 

World 

Hot topics 

IRAN'S REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS PATROL PERSIAN GULF, U.S. SAYS 

CNN
November 29, 2007 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/11/29/iran.navy/index.html 

WASHINGTON -- Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has taken command of
Iranian naval operations in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. military has
revealed. 

That means U.S. naval forces are operating in the same waters as an
organization the United States considers a major supporter of terrorist
activity. 

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the
disclosure Wednesday at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania,
where he was answering questions from military students. 

Afterward, in a written statement, the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet in Bahrain
said, "Based on activities observed in the Arabian Gulf over the past
several months, it appears the Iranian navy has shifted its patrol areas to
the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman -- leaving the IRGC navy to provide
the primary Iranian naval presence in the Arabian Gulf." 

The move is of concern to the U.S. Navy, which has long viewed the IRGC's
forces as more antagonistic than Iran's regular navy. 

Mullen said Iran made a "strategic decision" in recent months to
"essentially give the entire Gulf to the IRGC over the next four or five
years." 

"That's a big deal, because I think part of the leading-edge challenge with
Iran is the IRGC specifically," Mullen said. 

For the past several months, IRGC forces have occupied a sunken barge and
crane near Iraqi oil terminals at the northern end of the Persian Gulf. The
IRGC is using the site as an observation post for the area, which is
patrolled regularly by U.S. and coalition naval forces. 

Mullen's comments reflect the chairman's concern about not just Iran's
nuclear program, but also its arms shipments to Iraq and Afghanistan and
statements against Israel, a senior U.S. Navy official said. 

The United States has long said it believes the IRGC is behind those arms
shipments, but it has stopped short of saying the central government of Iran
is responsible for those actions. 

IRGC forces earlier this year seized a group of British sailors at the
northern end of the Gulf and held them for several days. The British had
been conducting a boarding of a merchant vessel, as part of an approved
coalition operation in the Gulf. 

Since that incident, security measures for boarding parties have been
stepped up, a senior U.S. Navy official said. New procedures during all
boardings include flying an armed helicopter overhead and having an armed
vessel close by. 

A U.S. Navy official in the region said that operations in proximity to
Iran's regular navy have been "formal and correct," but added that IRGC
forces "rarely respond" to U.S. Navy attempts at ship-to-ship communications
with them. 

Several U.S. Navy officials said the move is militarily significant for the
United States because of the IRGC's terrorist affiliation. U.S. Navy ships
would not want IRGC vessels sailing too close to them because of that
concern, they said. 

One official said Iran's regular naval forces evoke less concern because
they "represent a nation state." 

The IRGC was formed in 1979. Under Iran's constitution, the corps' task is
to protect the revolution, which generally means that it makes sure that
domestic forces don't threaten the theocratic state, said analyst William
Samii of the Center for Naval Analyses. The center is a government-funded
think tank for the Department of the Navy in Alexandria, Virginia. 

In contrast, the conventional forces are tasked with protecting the
country's borders and guaranteeing its security. 

The naval move "makes perfect sense," Samii said in a telephone interview. 

In recent years, the Iranian military has recognized that, in a toe-to-toe
fight with the U.S. military, "they'd get squashed," Samii said. 

In response, it has been focusing more on alternative tactics, in which the
Revolutionary Guards excel, such as setting mine fields and using large
numbers of small boats either packed with explosives or manned by personnel
carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The thinking is that at least
one would be able to get close enough to a large enemy military vessel to
attack it, Samii said. 

"Iran is trying to send a signal that it is ready for any military
eventuality and that it is prepared to defend itself aggressively," he said.


But the move could backfire by driving Iran's Gulf neighbors into the arms
of the United States, which has guaranteed the security of Arab states in
the Gulf for decades, Samii said.



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