For decades, the Quds Force has operated as the primary instrument through which Iran projects military power and carries out lethal operations beyond its borders. The unit, whose name means “Jerusalem Force” in Persian, serves as the elite external operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Originally formed from a special intelligence department during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, it became an independent branch of the IRGC after that conflict ended. Unlike conventional military units, the Quds Force reports directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader rather than to the defense ministry or the regular chain of command. This structure places the organization outside normal military oversight and has made it a recurring target of U.S. sanctions, criminal indictments, and military strikes.
A Record of Attacks Spanning Continents
The Quds Force has been implicated in a series of attacks that killed American service members and civilians across the Middle East and the Americas. The 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires killed 85 people, a strike the United States has long attributed to Iran’s Quds Force. Two years later, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia killed 19 U.S. airmen.
In 2011, U.S. authorities uncovered a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C. The U.S. government designated the Quds Force a terrorist organization in 2007. In a broader move, Washington listed the entire IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization in 2019 — the first time the United States had labeled part of another government as such.
Each incident carries its own legal and financial consequences, including sanctions, litigation, and diplomatic fallout that ripple through international markets.
Command Structure and Continued Operations
Qasem Soleimani, who commanded the Quds Force for years, was killed in a U.S. drone strike on January 3, 2020. His successor, Esmail Qaani, has continued operations since then. According to U.S. intelligence assessments, the transition of command did not slow the unit’s activities.
In 2022, the U.S. Justice Department charged an IRGC intelligence officer with plotting to assassinate former National Security Advisor John Bolton. Prosecutors alleged the plot was retaliation for Soleimani’s death.
The case underscored that the Quds Force and its parent organization view the United States as a direct target. Over decades, the Quds Force has built a network of non-state partners across the Middle East and beyond. It has provided training, weapons, and funding to groups including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, and various Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
The unit has also deployed its own personnel into foreign conflicts, most notably the Syrian civil war and the Iraqi campaign against the Islamic State. One former U.S. commander compared the Quds Force to a fusion of the CIA and a special operations command for its ability to conduct both intelligence work and direct military action.
The significance of the Quds Force for American readers lies in its direct link to Iran’s highest authority. Because the unit answers to the Supreme Leader, its operations can proceed without approval from the defense ministry or the elected government. This autonomy has made the Quds Force a central instrument of Iranian foreign policy, but also a recurring flashpoint in international security.
Any escalation involving the unit will carry immediate implications for regional stability and global energy markets. As long as the Quds Force retains its special status and global reach, it will remain a focus of American pressure campaigns, with sanctions continuing to target its financial networks and operatives.
The unit’s ability to project Iranian power through proxy forces and direct operations remains a central concern for U.S. policymakers, who view it as a persistent threat that requires sustained attention from the intelligence and defense communities.
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