Senior Iranian Commander: White House is ISIL’s Headquarters

Tehran’s Growing Anger 

Commander of Iranian Basij Force Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi said today in Tehran that the White House is the “headquarters of ISIL.” Naqdi added that the U.S. has created ISIL in a plot to sow discord in the Islamic world.

“The first objective of the Unite States in creating this criminal current (ISIL) is to portray a distorted image of Islam and this has been achieved through the perpetration of inhumane and savage crimes and their publication by the world media,” Naqdi said, referring to recent beheadings of American and British citizens by ISIL.

“The second objective is to create rift, animosity and war between the Shia and Sunni,” Naqdi added.  (Press TV, 14 September)

Note: Since ISIL’s rapid advances in eastern Syria and western Iraq, beginning with the occupation of Mosul in June, and the establishment of the Islamic Sate, the state-run Iranian media has vigorously portrayed ISIL as a tool of the United States in the region.

Naqdi’s remarks is the clearest sign that the conspiracy theory regarding ISIL is being publicly elevated to an official line of the Islamic Republic. It is hard for Tehran to admit that the IRGC and the Shia militias under the command of its foreign legion, the Quds Force, are fighting Sunni militants in Syria and Iraq. After all, the Quds Force means the “Jerusalem Force,” for liberating Jerusalem, not killing fellow Muslims. So it would be very convenient for them if people started believing that the White House was running the ISIL, and the Iranians were defending Islam in their fight against Americans, and not Shia soldiers and militias killing Sunnis.

Naqdi’s comments are also manifestation of Tehran’s anger at recent events in the region. The post-U.S. invasions political order, which so much favored Iran, is falling apart, and rather rapidly. Assad, who was to scare the Israelis away from attacking Iran, has been bogged down in a bloody war and lost almost half the country. IRGC and Naqdi’s own Basij forces deployed across Syria, as large as they are, and their comrades in the Syrian intelligence, could not even detect and warn Baghdad of pending ISIL insurgents moving toward Mosul in June, mostly from Syria.

The government in Iraq, which had become a client state of Iran, fell and the new government in Baghdad, with much more pronounced Sunni and Kurdish influence than before, is now practically only in control of southern Iraq. The Shia Crescent is not rising. The U.S. is back in Iraq, and probably soon in Syria. The nuclear deal is not advancing, and the country’s economy, which was in a stalemate, now needs to support IRGC and Naqdi’s Basij forces in two very expensive wars: deploying large numbers of military and intelligence operators, as well as heavy ground and air equipment; funding the growing number of Shia militias; supplying arms; supporting Damascus with oil and financial assistance; and all other expenses, like transportation and communication, necessary in modern warfare. And the Iranians, after all this, are not even invited to Paris Conference on ISIL. And General Naqdi and his comrades are angry, and it shows.

File photo: Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, commander of Iran's Basij Force. (IRNA)

Naqdi destroyer docks in Qatari port

The destroy Naqdi of the Iranian navy has docked in a Qatari port in what has been described as a step towards the improvement of bilateral defense ties between the two countries.

Being neighbours Iran and Qatar have common sea borders and this docking of an Iranian naval warship in Doha has been seen by the Iranian government as a symbolic step towards the improvement of bilateral defense ties between the two countries.

Brigadier General Naqdi: New Basij Commandant

Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi was born in Najaf, Iraq in 1953. He and his family were expelled from Iraq during Saddam's mass purge of Iranians in 1980. Later, he enlisted in the Basij Expeditionary Force, saw action in Lebanon and was closely linked to Hezbollah. Upon returning to Iran, he became a member of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Revolution Council. (The term "Revolution" was later omitted in 2007.)

Around 1993, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei employed Naqdi as a rising intelligence officer for the IRGC Quds Force. Shortly thereafter, Naqdi was posted at the Intelligence office of Iran's security, to be subsequently assigned into a high ranking staff position as a Brigadier General at General Command Headquarters.

In 1999, during Khatami's presidency, Naqdi participated in a semi-coup against the freely elected reformist government. He was instrumental in arresting the mayor of Tehran, Gholamhossein Karbaschi, together with 164 top municipal employees. He was also involved in plotting assassination attempts against Abdullah Nouri (Interior Minister) and Mohajerani (Minister of Islamic Culture and Guidance), and played a key role in coordinating a crackdown against a student uprising at Tehran University by members of Ansar Hezbollah, a plain-clothed militia that along with others, Naqdi played a key role in organizing and financing.

In 2000, Naqdi formed a political group called called the Band-e Kabir (Great Gang) to "prevent social corruption". Breaking Iranian law in the process, he faced charges of criminal activity in judicial proceedings and was sentenced to a 3 month prison term, which he never served. Naqdi is rumored to have been involved (together with Mohseni Ejei- Ahmadinejad's minister of Intelligence) with the suspicious death of the judge that handled the Tehran mayor's criminal case (the judge suffered cardiac arrest apparently due to air-injection).

It's interesting to note that the members of Band-e Kabir were charged with several felonies (including kidnapping, extortion, use of dangerous weapons and firearms, as well as abuse of governmental power) and were publicly prosecuted. However Naqdi, who is closely connected within the Supreme Leader's inner circle, was spared. In fact, instead of being prosecuted, he was promoted by President Ahmadinejad in 2005 and put in charge of a federal corruption probe, the "Committee to Combat Drug and Currency Smuggling". Responding to Naqdi's exposure of smuggling practices by one of President Ahmadinejad's major financial supporters, Naqdi was removed from his anti-corruption post, to be returned to a staff position in the Iranian armed forces by the Supreme Leader.

On Sunday, October 4th, Ayatollah Khamenei appointed Naqdi as Basij Commandant, replacing cleric Hojjatoleslam Hossein Taeb. Naqdi's selection by the Supreme Leader indicates the need for a hard hitting, security minded authority, who is not afraid to take decisive action against internal elements perceived as a soft or hard threat to the Islamic Republic establishment. It's also possible that his appointment, to a degree, represents an attempt by Khamenei to promote a balance of power within Iran's multiple layers of state security apparatuses, with Naqdi very much being a supreme leader man. It has also been reported that the Basij are to be incorporated into IRGC ground forces and if true, Naqdi will no doubt supervise this formal crossover.

*Biography provided courtesy of Naj at Neo-Resistance, with supplemental details provided by Roozonline.com

--MARK PYRUZ