US offers financial reward to cut off Iran's arms in region
The United States is trying to use all available tools that
enable it to limit Iran and cut off its financing and support to its terrorist
arms through the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) in the Arab region, especially in
Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Washington classifies the IRGC as a terrorist organization,
and it announced on April 10 a $15 million financial reward for providing
information on IRGC activities in Yemen and Iraq.
Financial reward
A statement by the US State Department on its official
website and published by the American Embassy in Yemen said that the US
announcement of the reward launched under the Rewards for Justice program comes
in light of the escalation of international calls to end the war in Yemen and
start a serious peace process that ends the armed conflict and terrorist
operations carried out by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia after six years of
the war in Yemen.
The announcement included another reward of $10 million in
exchange for information about the representative of the Lebanese Hezbollah
militia in Iraq, Mohammad Hussein Kawtharani, who has been listed on the
terrorism list since 2013 and who is in charge of coordinating the pro-Iranian
militia in Iraq.
The statement pointed out that the reward would go to anyone
who provides information leading to the dismantling of the IRGC’s smuggling and
financing networks in Yemen, noting that Washington continues its efforts to
address Iran’s arms, which have contributed to perpetuating the instability in
Yemen, as the US seeks to target Tehran’s agents in the region, including
Shiite movements and armed militias whose activities extend from Iraq to Yemen,
Syria and Lebanon.
The United States had also announced a reward for
information about IRGC activities in September 2019, when US Envoy Brian Hook
announced that Washington had allocated a $15 million reward for anyone who
reports on the activities of the IRGC in order to disrupt the financial mechanisms
for it and its branches, along with another reward of up to $15 million for
information about IRGC leader Abdulreza Shahlai, who is suspected of planning
to assassinate then-Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir, in addition to a reward of
$7 million for information about Lebanese Hezbollah leader Salman Raouf
Salman.
The IRGC, which Washington has designated a terrorist
organization since April 2019, oversees the training and financing of terrorist
groups affiliated with Iran in the region’s countries, including the Houthi
militia in Yemen, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq and its various
arms, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and its terrorist groups in Syria.
However, the IRGC have a role in providing all means of
financing for cultural centers, schools, and Shiite groups linked to Iran that
are spreading the ideology of the extremist mullahs and the doctrine of
Vilayat-e Faqih (rule of the jurist) within the framework of "exporting
the revolution" to Arab countries in the region.
US approach
Iranian affairs specialist Osama al-Hitimi told the
Reference that Washington offering millions of dollars in financial rewards for
information about IRGC activities in Yemen or about Kawtharani is nothing new,
as Washington had adopted this same policy many years ago, through which it
managed to reach many of the figures it viewed as a threat to its security or
an impediment to implementing its policies.
Hitimi noted that the size of the financial rewards
contributes greatly to the US achieving its goals, as it undoubtedly represents
a temptation that is difficult to resist for those who possess such
information, which prompted the State Department to adopt the Rewards for
Justice program.
He added that Washington also sometimes wants to deliver a
message of intimidation to Iran’s terrorist organizations.
