Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Certainly not soft power

The idea of soft power is to exercise influence by being attractive or offering benefits. ("sugar catches more flies than vinegar…") If this report is accurate, Iran's Revolutionary Guard is not content to appear attractive.

Europe Accuses Iranian Force of Aiding Syrian Crackdown
The European Union announced on Wednesday that it was leveling sanctions against Iran’s Al Quds military force, saying it had given technical and material support to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in his efforts to crush the five-month-old uprising against his rule…

The European Union said in a statement published in its official journal that Al Quds, an elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, “provided technical assistance, equipment and support to the Syrian security services to repress civilian protest movements.”

The United States and other countries have also accused Tehran of aiding Mr. Assad’s crackdown. British newspapers have quoted unnamed Western diplomats in recent weeks as saying that Iran was providing riot-control gear and surveillance equipment to the Assad government.

The secretive Al Quds force is an elite and ideologically grounded unit that was created to protect and promote the Iranian revolution. It carries out operations beyond Iran’s borders and was responsible for initially training and arming the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon…

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