Time for Iran’s militias to be held accountable for war crimes

We can no longer ignore the regional role of Iran’s Quds Force militias. The current confrontation over Gaza illustrates how they have formed an interconnected and coordinated network that could ignite a full-blown regional war. My Iranian friends call it “the octopus,” with its head in Iran and tentacles being the armed militias in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. And, in the view of most of its population, it occupies Iran itself.
The Quds Force, which is part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is the agency responsible for extraterritorial operations both in the region and as far away as Europe and Latin America. It also has a presence in the main diaspora centers.
This is not the first time the militias have acted in unison. In Syria, they were summoned to save the Assad regime more than a decade ago. Foreign fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan joined militias like Kata’ib Hezbollah and the Abu Al-Fadl Al-Abbas Forces from Iraq, the Houthis from Yemen and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. They participated in massacres, ethnic cleansing, starvation sieges, assassinations and kidnappings and almost governed some areas.
These are highly trained and coordinated military organizations that establish local control and collapse state institutions through criminal behavior, similar to the Latin American drug cartels. They have never been held accountable for their crimes in Syria or anywhere else in the region, despite there having been several court cases in Europe against officials of the Syrian regime and other militias held under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
Universal jurisdiction allows accountability for war crimes committed in the region by both state and nonstate actors to be sought elsewhere. Some countries consider that they can prosecute certain suspects, even if the crimes have been committed in another country. War crimes or atrocities such as genocide, mass starvation or torture can fall under the category of crimes against humanity and should be of concern to all countries, hence the label universal jurisdiction.
The Universal Jurisdiction Annual Review for 2023 mentions 36 new cases, which led to 16 convictions, with 13 domestic jurisdictions hearing cases for crimes committed outside their territory. The advantage of such a mechanism is that it gives agency to the victims themselves. They can rely on both local and international nongovernmental organizations, as well as UN institutions, to help build prosecution cases.
In Syria, thousands of incriminating documents, such as the so-called Caesar files, have been smuggled out of the country and are being analyzed in Europe and the US for evidence against individuals who are then identified, arrested and tried. This introduces a sense of accountability and justice that has a significant political and moral impact.
There have been some cases brought against members of the Assad regime and there are many institutions working on building such cases. But there was always the impression that the role of IRGC-affiliated militias was not given due attention.

It is time to step up research and cooperation to build universal jurisdiction cases for crimes committed by IRGC-backed militias. 

Nadim Shehadi

A report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights raises the concern that the international community deliberately ignored the participation of Iran’s Shiite militias in Syria. It states that UN Security Council Resolution 2170 of 2014 is exclusively concerned with foreign fighters and crimes committed by the Al-Nusra Front and Daesh and makes no mention of the IRGC’s groups. The Syrian Network for Human Rights also mentions that the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and other UN and international bodies published reports on Daesh and other Sunni organizations while largely ignoring the Iranian-backed militias.
It must be noted that the role of the IRGC militias is neither a secret nor difficult to research. There are several reports by media organizations and think tanks, as well as one by the Syrian Network for Human Rights, into the crimes committed by these militias. It must also be noted that, just because there has not yet been a case brought to court against members of IRGC militias, that does not necessarily mean there will not be any in the future.
There may be political explanations for this blindness toward the role of the IRGC, if it were proven to be true. There is circumstantial evidence that the Obama administration was reluctant to mention any Iranian role in Syria in order not to disrupt the negotiations over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal. American training programs of Syrian rebels collapsed because the trainees were armed on the condition that they fought Daesh and did not attack the regime or its allies, again to avoid any clash with Iranian elements that would disrupt the nuclear deal negotiations.
Around the same period, in 2014-15, the Obama administration was reluctant to admit to a link between the Houthis and Iran even after it had joined a coalition with Saudi Arabia against the group in Yemen. President Donald Trump labeled the Houthis a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group, but the Biden administration withdrew this designation in 2021 before reinstating it in January this year, when the group became a threat to American interests, maritime trade and Israel. There is no mention of its role in Yemen or actions against civilians in Syria.
It is time to step up research and cooperation to build universal jurisdiction cases for crimes committed by IRGC-backed militias in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, as well as by Hezbollah’s networks in Europe and Latin America. Victims and witnesses, as well as their torturers, can sometimes be found in the same European countries.
Some international organizations, like the UN’s International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria, created in December 2016, have a more flexible mandate than others. For example, the UN’s Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh, which is based in Iraq and is soon to be closed because the Iraqi government did not request the extension of its mandate, has a more specific focus.
After all, the IRGC militias and Daesh are two faces of the same violence. They both thrive when the region is on the brink of war and in failed states with no mechanism for holding them accountable for their crimes. Rebuilding state institutions and the rule of law with international help is the way to defeat them.

• Nadim Shehadi is an economist and political adviser. X: @Confusezeus