IRAN’S terrorist army the Revolutionary Guard subscribes to a wider extremist ideology that is hellbent on the “eradication of Israel”.
An expert spoke to The Sun about its relationship to Hamas, and the anti-Semitic extremism which drove the October 7 attacks.
Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research and specialist scholar in Islamist extremism, explains the apocalyptic rhetoric behind the terror group’s acts.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) is made up of recruits that are brainwashed into having a deep and violent hatred of the West, Christians and Jews, Aarabi told The Sun.
In 2021, Qasem Soleimani, the terror group’s mastermind was killed by a US drone strike, sparking Iran to threaten revenge over his assassination.
He described the ideology of the IRGC as “deeply anti Semitic”, and said this sentiment is what “binds these Islamist extremist organisations together”.
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The vile training manuals used by the IRGC to recruit militants, studied by Aarabi, apparently state that “Israel must be eradicated”.
“And the key thing that they state by the way is they are teaching their recruits to wage armed jihad against Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews on the basis that they quote, have unacceptable faith and must either convert to Islam or be executed.”
The horrific ideology, an extremist and minority school of thought not followed by Muslims, is apparently centred around the return of the “hidden Imam” before which Jewish people have to be “eradicated”.
Aarabi explained that according to the extremist fundamentalist belief the Imam was “withdrawn into a state of disappearance, miraculous state of disappearance by God in 874 and one day, he will return, bringing justice to the world”.
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The IRGC has an official policy of eradicating the state of Israel
Kasra Aarabi
And before his arrival “there will be an apocalyptic war where Jews worldwide will be eradicated and killed”.
He told The Sun they claim the existence of Israel is a barrier to his return as part of their radicalisation regimes for young recruits.
And he said that Hamas’ relationship with the terror group had a significant influence on the October 7 attacks on Israel.
The relationship apparently “really started to flourish in the early 1990s when Israel expelled Hamas into Lebanon.
“Hamas militants were trained at the Hezbollah University and this included suicide bombing training.
“But also a delegation of Hamas militants were sent to Tehran to undergo missile training by none other than the Iranian regime’s so called godfather of their ballistic missile program.”
Aarabi told The Sun that the relationship has grown stronger in recent years, through training and recruitment, strategic planning of attacks, resources and financial funding.
He described the IRGC as “the principal supporter of Hamas militarily, financially, logistically in terms of armaments.”
In 2021 the Iran regime created a “joint command room in Southern Lebanon where it places Hamas alongside Hezbollah, its most important proxy”.
It has apparently played a key role in creating bases for Hamas to recruit young men in Gaza ahead of what he dubbed “Israel’s 9/11”.
The IRGC is also apparently the primary financial supporter of Hamas.
Through crypto, international wire funds and even bags of cash, the IRGC has funded Hamas officials with “around $100 million annually”, a figure which he says has increased to “$350” in the last year.
“We’ve seen increased payments to Hezbollah, we’ve seen increased payments to Hamas and these are all mechanisms that have enabled the October 7th terrorist attack.”
The October 7 attacks could not have taken place, he said, without the “green light” of the IRGC and their coordination.
IRGC chief Ismail Ghani has reportedly travelled around the Middle East mobilising different groups ahead of the attack, and has been “bringing together Hamas and Hezbollah”, in order to fulfil the twisted goal set out by it’s apocalyptic ideology.
“The IRGC has an official policy of eradicating the state of Israel,” he said.
“It [Hamas] is reliant on the IRGC to orchestrate such an attack, such a terrorist attack on that scale, the IRGC will have been involved heavily.”
The IRGC sees the October 7th attacks as the beginning of a longer confrontation with Israel, its doctrine is built around making Israel bleed slowly over time
Kasra Aarabi
Aarabi also highlighted attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, including the recent hijacking of an Israeli owned cargo ship and the firing of ballistic missiles.
He claimed the group had been “preparing for a major confrontation with Israel” for some time and it is only the beginning of a much larger plan.
“The IRGC sees the October 7th attacks as the beginning of a longer confrontation with Israel, its doctrine is built around making Israel bleed slowly over time.”
In a chilling statement about the future of extremist acts committed under the guise of the twisted extremist ideology, Aarabi said: “I believe we’re moving towards a period of escalation and confrontation in the Middle East that we’ve not witnessed before.”
He said that effective sanctions imposed by the West on Iran is the only way to deescalate certain aspects of the conflict, especially when it comes to their nuclear weaponry.
“Until Tehran does not feel the consequences, that trajectory of escalation is going to continue and there will be more attacks, there will be more October 7th attacks.
“If we want a period of deescalation, we need to target the mastermind, the strategic mastermind behind all of these attacks.”
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Ellie Doughty
