US offers financial reward to cut off Iran’s arms in region

Nora Bandari

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.