The Sudanese newspaper Rai al-Shaab (Opinion of the People), owned and controlled by Sudanese opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, recently published an article that potentially provides new and important insight into Sudan's terrorist ties to Iran. The article alleges that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, is operating a secret weapons factory in Sudan to funnel weapons to Iran-sponsored terrorist organizations in Africa and the Middle East.
Several Arab bloggers circulated the article last week. Today, these blogs are the only evidence that the article ever existed. Soon after it was published, Sudanese authorities shut down the entire newspaper. The paper's deputy editor, Abu Zur al-Amin, was arrested on charges of "terrorism, espionage and destabilizing the constitutional system," according to Reuters.
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The Sudanese newspaper report claimed that the Quds Force, a deadly arm of the IRGC that has been fingered by the U.S. government for providing military support to the Taliban and other anti-U.S. forces in Afghanistan, set up the factory "in the jurisdiction of Khartoum" as part of an undeclared element of the 2008 defense pact signed between Iran and Sudan.
Israel, for its part, might already be aware of the IRGC weapons factory. In fact, it might have already attacked the weapons produced there. In March 2009, U.S. officials claimed that Israel had conducted three airstrikes in Sudan in early 2009 that targeted Iranian weapons shipments meant for Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. One attack in January 2009 targeted a 17-truck convoy, killing as many as 39 people, reported CBS News, the first Western media outlet to reveal this story. Israel, as is often the case, neither confirmed nor denied this report.
Although Rai al-Shaab's news item is still unconfirmed, the long history of military cooperation between Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and the Islamic Republic certainly places it within the realm of possibility. Indeed, the mullahs have been helping Sudan expand its terrorist infrastructure since Islamists (led by the aforementioned Turabi) brought Bashir to power through a coup d'état in 1989.
In 1991, according to author and prominent Iranian opposition activist Mohammad Mohaddessin, Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, along with dozens of military advisors and officials, paid an official visit to Khartoum, where he pledged $17 million in financial aid and arranged for weapons deliveries to the country. "The Islamic revolution of Sudan," he proclaimed, "alongside Iran's pioneer revolution, can doubtless be the source of movement and revolution throughout the Islamic world." As many as 2,000 soldiers from the IRGC were subsequently sent to Sudan to train the country's military forces.
Sudan has continued to serve as a central hub for Iranian terrorist activity. From training Hamas to funneling weapons to a Hezbollah cell in Egypt last year, Sudan has played an important role in Iran's regional strategy. The Rai al-Shaab article argues that this factory is an extension of these efforts. The weapons, it claims, are being supplied to extremist elements in Africa and the Middle East, including supplying the "Houthis [in Yemen], Somalis, and ... Hamas in the Gaza Strip with missiles."
Why would Tehran establish a weapons factory in Sudan, when it could simply produce arms on Iranian soil? The article claims that the factory is an Iranian attempt to streamline its supply chain, now under intense scrutiny due to the international furor over the country's illicit nuclear program. The IRGC reportedly has complete control of the factory, but the weapons do not bear Iranian markings.
Specifically, Rai al-Shaab noted the interdiction of 35 tons of North Korean-made weaponry by Thai authorities in December 2009, which the IRGC had reportedly earmarked for Hamas, as a reason for it to establish a Sudan-based factory. The plane's cargo reportedly included "shoulder-launched missiles, parts for surface-to-air missiles, and electronic systems to control weapons," according to the Wall Street Journal. Until now, only Israel has accused Iran of bankrolling this shipment.
Today, Sudanese authorities are cracking down on the journalists for violating Sudan's press law, which places "responsibility for publishing false information in a newspaper upon the newspaper's editor and managers." Turabi was one of the figures recently jailed in this wave of arrests. Although there are certainly good reasons to arrest him -- he was a close ally of Osama bin Laden during the al Qaeda leader's time in Sudan during the 1990s -- Al Jazeera reports that Bashir arrested him over the Rai al-Shaab story.
The existence of an IRGC weapons factory in Sudan would certainly be cause for alarm. The IRGC, after all, is viewed by the U.S. government as a chief actor in Iran's efforts to attain a nuclear weapon. The factory could also be used to supply weapons to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, not to mention arms for the Sudanese regime's ongoing genocide campaign in Darfur.
Questions remain over the possible IRGC weapons factory in Sudan. But it's a fair bet that Western intelligence agencies are scrambling to answer them.
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