NCRI – President Barack Obama enacted a law to counter Iranian regime’s “growing hostile presence and activity” in Latin America, through a new diplomatic and political strategy to be designed by the US State Department, news agencies reported on Saturday.
The “Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act of 2012”, passed by lawmakers earlier this year, calls for the State Department to develop a strategy within 180 days to address Iranian regime’s activities in the region particularly by the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and its Qods force.
The Act states that “It shall be the policy of the United States to use a comprehensive government-wide strategy to counter Iran’s growing hostile presence and activity in the Western Hemisphere by working together with United States allies and partners in the region to mutually deter threats to United States interests by the Government of Iran, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the IRGC’s Qods Force.”
The House Resolution 3783 titled “Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act of 2012,” notes that the congress finds that “the IRGC’s Qods Force stations operatives in foreign embassies, charities, and religious and cultural institutions to foster relationships, often building on existing socioeconomic ties” fundamentalists in the region and recent years have there has been an ”increased presence in Latin America.”
“Iranian proxies with a presence in Latin America have raised revenues through illicit activities, including drug and arms trafficking, counterfeiting, money laundering, forging travel documents, pirating software and music, and providing haven and assistance to other terrorists transiting the region.”
The IRGC and its terrorist Qods Force has been behind some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Latin America in the past two decades, including the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires.
