The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) revealed that a network of docks in southern Iran is used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to smuggle weapons to their affiliates in the region. The funds earned are then used to finance their armed activities and affiliated militant groups. In a press conference held in London, the NCRI added that three IRGC companies are involved in exporting weapons to the regional groups affiliated to the Iranian regime, particularly those operating in Yemen. Detailed information was released on the methods of operations of these companies was presented as well.
Hussein Abedini, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of NCRI, said: "it is necessary to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization for committing crimes inside and outside Iran, calling to impose serious and comprehensive sanctions on IRGC as well as any party dealing with it.” He added: "the NCRI has repeatedly stressed that the export of terrorism and extremism, and interference in the region, is one of the foundations of the ruling extremist regime in Iran.”
The ruling regime in Iran relies on repression at home and exporting extremism and terrorism abroad, according to Abedini.
He stressed that the Mullah regime and the IRGC are responsible for the formation and the growth of most of the Shiite or Sunni extremist groups in the region, noting that ISIS and IRGC are two sides of the same coin. The difference between them is that the IRGC controls a whole state, with its strategic resources.
“These docks play a key role in the regime’s efforts to evade sanctions. Investigations by PMOI/MEK sources within the regime concluded that unlawful export of arms to proxy forces in the region are carried out through docks,” according to the NCRI. “IRGC has set up a number of front companies to dispatch arms and caches to the regime’s proxies through these docks.”
The NCRI also released information pointing to the IRGC Navy’s control and management of docks and ports in southern Iran by designating five command headquarters in the south. Specific information obtained by the Iranian resistance show that arms dispatch goes on continuously and only a small portion of the IRGC engagement in unlawful arms export have been uncovered in recent years.
“The IRGC is therefore a comprehensive economic set up that virtually controls bulk of Iran’s export and import. Exclusive use and control of a major part of the docks in Iran is a key element in its set up,” said the NCRI report.
Subsequent to the closure of the docks in Yemen to the regime’s ships, the IRGC companies use the ports in Oman to smuggle weapons into Yemen. Import and export of illicit goods from the docks controlled by the IRGC amount to 12 billion dollars annually. IRGC is economically set up to control a bulk of Iran’s export and import, as well as a source of independent funding beyond its budget from the Iranian government.
Based on Khamenei’s order, no authority is allowed to oversee the activities of the IRGC at border areas, and it can import anything in any quantity without paying any custom fees. The IRGC is also engaged in smuggling goods, including oil, cigarettes, mobile phones and pharmaceuticals, just to name a few of the goods listed by the NCRI.