The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Quds Force branch are of particular concern to the West. They are involved in all conflicts that are happening in the region. Bashar al-Assad in Syria is being backed by the IRGC as are the Shi’ia militias in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. 

Washington has been considering designating the IRGC as an FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization) for all of its meddling in the affairs of other countries, its export of terrorism and its fundamentalism. 

The regime’s malign activities do not stop here. Last week, a young television executive aged just 42, was shot in Istanbul. Saeed Karimian was an Iranian-born television mogul and was the director of a Persian-language satellite TV network called GEM Group. He was killed along with his Kuwaiti business partner on Saturday night.

It appears that the Iranian regime will go to any length to repress. The GEM network airs Western-type soaps and other such programs in Iran. The Iranian regime, of course, views this as anti-Islamic and has spent years spreading lies about Karimian in what appears to be a scene to justify his murder.

They said that Karimian was a key member of the Iranian opposition – the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI or MEK). He was not a member and he never got involved in politics. There were also false photos of him and the opposition leader Maryam Rajavi circulating. The doctored photo was originally a photo of Mrs. Rajavi at the Belgian senate in 2013. Karimian’s face was put on top of MEP Gerard Deprez’s.

It is clear that the IRGC was responsible for the murder. Forgetting that the crime was carried out in a way that screams the IRGC, it is very telling that Iranian state news agencies were able to report the exact details of the murder before any information had been released by Turkish authorities. 

The assassination is also proof that the Iranian regime is crippled with paranoia and is in a very weak position. Its reactions are panicked and it clearly is lost now that it is faced with the new policies of the Trump administration. For the eight years of Obama’s presidency, the Iranian regime felt secure in the knowledge that Obama would do its utmost to appease Iran. 

Now the Islamic Republic is verging on the edge of an uprising like the one in 2009. The Iranian regime is at tipping point and grasping for dear life.