What it is
سپاه قدس (sepâh-e qods), the Quds Force, is the expeditionary arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “Qods” is the Persian-Arabic word for Jerusalem, and the unit was founded around 1990, drawn from IRGC veterans of the Iran-Iraq War, with a mandate to project Iranian influence beyond Iran’s borders through irregular warfare, proxy support, training, and financing.
The Quds Force reports through the IRGC chain to the Supreme Leader. It operates outside the formal Iranian Foreign Ministry channels, and its officers travel under cover identities. The unit’s headquarters sits in Tehran, but its operational footprint is a regional network.
The mechanics
The Quds Force runs Iran’s network of regional partners: Hezbollah in Lebanon (training, weapons, financing since the 1980s, the most institutionally tight of the relationships), the Shia militias inside the Iraqi Hashd al-Sha’bi (Kata’ib Hezbollah, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba), Bashar al-Asad’s apparatus in Syria during the civil war, the Houthis in Yemen (logistics, drone and missile components, training), and Palestinian factions including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (financing, training, technical support).
Qassem Soleimani commanded the Quds Force from 1998 until his death in a US drone strike at Baghdad International Airport on 3 January 2020. Soleimani had become a public figure inside Iran in his last years, photographed on Syrian battlefields, and his killing triggered a national funeral procession and an Iranian retaliatory missile strike on US bases in Iraq five days later. Esmail Qa’âni took over as commander on 3 January 2020 and remains in the role.
The Quds Force is the part of the Iranian state most associated with the regime’s foreign-policy posture: every Iranian missile that lands in Israel via Hezbollah, every Iraqi militia rocket on a US base, every Houthi anti-shipping attack on the Red Sea, traces back through Quds Force training and supply channels.
Sanctions and designations
The US Treasury designated the Quds Force as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity on 25 October 2007 under Executive Order 13224. The full Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including the Quds Force, was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the US State Department on 15 April 2019, the first time the US designated an official military force of a sovereign state as an FTO. The European Union added the IRGC to its terrorist list on 19 February 2026.
Soleimani himself had been individually sanctioned for years before his death. Qa’âni has been on the SDGT list since 2012.
In our voice
The Quds Force is the part of the Iranian state where the regime’s two faces (the diplomatic, treaty-signing face that talks to the EU and the IAEA, and the operational, militia-running face that ships weapons to South Beirut and Sana’a) become the same face. Iranians inside the country know this and joke about it. Diaspora Iranians watching the regional news know this and don’t joke about it. The Quds Force is not a rogue unit. It is the policy.
Why it’s in this glossary
Anyone reading about Israel-Iran tensions, Iraq, Lebanon, or the Houthis will encounter the phrase. The English-language press often calls it the “Quds Force” without explanation; the Persian-language press uses سپاه قدس constantly. We separate it from the broader IRGC entry because the Quds Force has its own command, its own operational character, and its own designation history.
How to use it
- سپاه قدس فرماندهیش رو قاآنی بهعهده داره (sepâh-e qods farmândehish-o Qa’âni be-ohde dâre) “Qa’âni commands the Quds Force”
- سلیمانی فرمانده سپاه قدس بود (Soleymâni farmândeh-ye sepâh-e qods bud) “Soleimani was the Quds Force commander”
- سپاه قدس حزبالله رو تسلیح میکنه (sepâh-e qods hezb-ollâh-o taslih mikone) “the Quds Force arms Hezbollah”
References
- US DNI, IRGC and Quds Force profile
- US Treasury Quds Force SDGT designation, 25 October 2007
- US State Department FTO list (IRGC, 15 April 2019)
- EU Council, IRGC terrorist designation, 19 February 2026
- Dehkhoda, قدس
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