Analysis by PMOI/MEK
May 17, 2019 – The regime in Iran is launching training camps for terrorist proxy groups in Lebanon, according to the U.S. State Department.
The Arabic Twitter of the U.S. State Department prepared a video in this regard showing how Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force are training militias in this base located near the town of Beit Moubarak in east Lebanon near the border with Syria.
“We see a small valley that goes down. This has a series of berms that are alternating, on the left and right. This is a training course for armored personnel carriers,” Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., Senior Fellow for Imagery Analysis at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), said in the video.
According to Seth G. Jones, senior adviser at CSIS, Iran’s objective with a base like this is to improve the capabilities of its local allies such as Hezbollah. The regime has similar training facilities inside Iran, “where it can bring individuals from all of these locations.”
“The IRGC’s Quds Force is Iran’s primary military actor in the Middle East. It competes with countries like the United States by training, advising and equipping sub-state forces, including Shia militias in Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon,” he said.
The Imam Ali Training Facility outside Iran’s capital Tehran was mentioned in the video as being “a small facility until 2008,” and has since become “a much larger, much more comprehensive” site, with shooting ranges, training facilities for urban fighting and parade grounds, Bermudez explained.
It is worth noting that the U.S. State Department recently designated the IRGC as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” (FTO).
