Iran Increases Funding for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Iran significantly increased its funding in 2021 for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the regime’s primary tool for exporting Islamist extremism and supporting terrorist groups, according to a new report released on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). This budget increase strongly suggests that the regime would use any financial windfall associated with a new nuclear agreement to boost support for its regional proxies and paramilitary forces.

While precisely measuring Iran’s military spending is difficult given its opaque funding mechanisms and the IRGC’s entwinement with the private sector, Tehran has long used the IRGC and its Quds Force to support terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and a bevy of other militias in Iraq and Syria. These organizations constitute vital tools in Iran’s hegemonic campaign for regional supremacy, which aims to attack, undermine, and control other governments in the Middle East at the expense of U.S. interests and those of its allies.

That fact is why over 1,000 veterans and family members of those killed or wounded by Iran-backed organizations wrote to President Biden in January urging him not to release frozen Iranian funds until Tehran compensates the families of the victims.

Despite the IRGC’s track record and continued misbehavior, the Biden administration has been considering removing the group from the U.S. list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO). Such a step would reduce the ability of U.S. victims of Iranian terrorism to sue the IRGC and providers of material support to the IRGC, reduce options for criminal prosecutions and penalties, and signal to others that a terrorist group can receive sanctions relief without having to cease its support for terrorism. Perhaps that is why 900 Gold Star family members and wounded veterans wrote another letter earlier this month asking Biden not to delist the IRGC.

The 14 percent increase in the IRGC’s budget makes clear that Tehran is as determined as ever to fund the group and support terrorism. If past is prologue, one should expect more IRGC-backed terrorism targeting Americans, Israelis, Arab partners, and others if Tehran receives tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief.

Bradley Bowman is senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where Ryan Brobst is a research analyst. For more analysis from the authors and CMPP, please subscribe HERE. Follow Bradley on Twitter @Brad_L_Bowman. Follow FDD on Twitter at @FDD and @FDD_CMPP. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.

This article appeared originally at Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).