Iran's Revolutionary Guards: More than an army

TEHRAN: Iran's Revolutionary Guards, set to be the target of unilateral US sanctions, are a fiercely committed force whose influence has extended beyond the military into politics and the economy. 

Almost three decades after the Islamic revolution, the Guards remain the elite military guardian of late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's ideology. 

"If the enemy wants to take any impudent action against the Islamic republic, we will for sure give a decisive and teeth-breaking response," its new commander General Mohammad Ali Jaafari warned last month.

But it is their increasing economic power the United States is seeking to squeeze by designating the Guards a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and their covert operations unit, the Quds Force, a supporter of terrorism.  

The move, which comes amid rising tensions between the two governments over Iran's controversial nuclear drive, will be the first time that Washington has sought to directly sanction another country's military.   

In recent years, the Guards' influence has started to permeate all areas of Iranian society, with their engineering arm picking up massive contracts and former cadres moving into crucial political positions. 

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fought for the Revolutionary Guards during the 1980-1988 war with Iraq and after taking office in 2005 promoted five former Guards members into cabinet posts.   

In business, the Guards now reap an increasingly substantial income which the United States is seeking to block with the blacklisting.   

In 2006, the Guards won a contract worth $2.09 billion to develop phases 15 and 16 of Iran's biggest gas field, South Pars, and a $1.3 billion deal to build a pipeline towards Pakistan.   

An extension of the Tehran metro, a high speed rail link between Tehran and Isfahan, shipping ports on Iran's south coast, a major dam in Khuzestan province, all of these projects are in the hands of the Guards.   

The Revolutionary Guards work in parallel with the regular armed forces but have their own land, sea, air and missile units. 

Their missile capabilities have aroused the greatest international concern as their Shahab-3 longer range missile has Israel and US bases within the Middle East within reach.

The Guards have also warned they have US bases in Iraq and Afghanistan under watch, implying the force will pound these targets and shut down the key oil conduit the Strait of Hormuz if the United States launches a military attack.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in September appointed Jaafari, an experienced ground commander and expert in assymetric warfare, to head the Guards in place of Yahya Rahim Safavi.   

Some observers saw the move as readying the Guards for conflict but Iran insisted it was just a regular reshuffle as Safavi had already served a 10 year term.