IRGC

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THE MEN OF ISLAMIC REVOLUTION

The Guards of the Iranian Revolution are profiled here.


BBC - 18 October 2009

Iran's Revolutionary Guards

. Several members of the Iranian cabinet are Guards veterans
. The Guards have some of Iran's most advanced military equipment

REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS

Officially the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), or Pasdaran
Formed after 1979 revolution
Loyal to clerics and counter to regular military
Estimated 125,000 troops
Includes ground forces, navy, air force, intelligence and special forces
Commander-in-chief: Mohammad Ali Jafari
Iran President Ahmadinejad is a former member


Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) was set up shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution to defend the country's Islamic system, and to provide a counterweight to the regular armed forces.

It has since become a major military, political and economic force in Iran, with close ties to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former member.

The force is estimated to have 125,000 active troops, boasts its own ground forces, navy and air force, and oversees Iran's strategic weapons.

It also controls the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force and the powerful bonyads, or charitable foundations, which run a considerable part of the Iranian economy.

The Revolutionary Guards' power and influence are such that the US government has designated it a "proliferator of weapons of mass destruction" and its elite overseas operations arm, the Quds Force, a "supporter of terrorism".

Guardians of the Revolution

Before the 1979 revolution, Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi relied on military might to ensure national security and to safeguard his power.

Afterwards, the new Islamic authorities, headed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, realised they too needed a powerful force committed to consolidating their leadership and revolutionary ideals.

The clerics therefore produced a new constitution that provided for both a regular Military (Artesh), to defend Iran's borders and maintain internal order, and a separate Revolutionary Guard (Pasdaran), to protect the country's Islamic system.

In practice, these roles have often overlapped, with the Guards also helping to keep public order and developing its own army, navy and air force.

Despite having 200,000 fewer troops than the regular military, the Guards are considered the dominant military force in Iran and are behind many of the country's key military operations.

In March 2007, it was the Guards' navy which sparked a diplomatic stand-off with the UK by detaining 15 British sailors and marines patrolling the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway separating Iran and Iraq.

The US has also accused the Guards' 15,000-strong overseas operation arm, the Quds Force, of supplying explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) - powerful roadside bombs - to Shia militants in Iraq.

The force is believed to have staff in embassies around the world, from where it allegedly conducts intelligence operations and organises training camps and arms shipments for foreign militant groups which Iran supports, such as Hezbollah.

Civilian presence

The Guards also have a powerful presence in civilian institutions, and control the Basij Resistance Force, an Islamic volunteer militia of about 90,000 men and women.

The Basij, or Mobilisation of the Oppressed, are loyalists to the revolution who are often called out onto the streets at times of crisis to use force to dispel dissent.

Such popular power, combined with the strong support of the Supreme Leader, has also made the Guards a key player in Iranian politics.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - also commander-in-chief of the armed forces - is believed to have used his power to expand his and the Guards' influence by appointing several former members to top political posts and using the force to suppress dissidents and reformists.

Soon after his election in 2005, President Ahmadinejad named several former veterans to key ministries in his cabinet.

After his disputed re-election in June, the Revolutionary Guards warned demonstrators against further protests.

Many people in Iran saw the subsequent crackdown on the opposition as an assertion of control by the Revolutionary Guards.

It is an impression the Guards have confirmed themselves, and members of the Basij militia, a group affiliated with the Guards, have been prominent in putting down the opposition protests.

There are also reports that the Revolutionary Guards have increased their already substantial stake in Iran's economy, with the purchase of a majority stake in the main telecommunications company.

The Guards are thought to control around a third of Iran's economy through a series of subsidiaries and trusts.

The Guards' engineering wing, Khatam-ol-Anbia (also known by an acronym, GHORB), has been awarded several multi-billion-dollar construction and engineering contracts, including the operation of Tehran's new Imam Khomeini international airport.

The Guards are also said to own or control several university laboratories, arms companies and even a car manufacturer.


26 July 2010:

Expanding business empire of Iran's Revolutionary Guards

The IRGC has been building its economic influence for more than 20 years

IRGC's BUSINESS EMPIRE

Khatam al-Anbia construction firm: employs 20,000 workers and boasts of hundreds of government contracts
Iran Telecommunications Company - 50% stake bought in government privatisation scheme
Angouran - the largest lead and zinc mine in the Middle East
Bahman Automobile Manufacturing Group - (manufactures the Mazda brand) - 45% stake
Iran electronics industry - comprises electronic, computer and communications companies
Iranians' Mehr Economic Institution - financial institution with hundreds of branches (one of the largest banking networks in Iran)


Iran has embarked on a remarkable - many would say bizarre - experiment in business management.

Domination of a fairly sophisticated, energy-rich economy has been handed to a secretive military organisation that started out as a religious militia.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is now believed to control a third of the Iranian economy.

Some experts put the figure much higher, although all estimates are a matter of conjecture.

The force was created by Ayatollah Khomeini 30 years ago to protect the state and defend the principles of his Islamic revolution.

Its improbable journey to becoming a powerful business network is bound up with Iran's response to American pressure and international sanctions, which are intended to persuade Tehran to abandon alleged plans to develop nuclear weapons.

Among many other activities, the guard - often referred to by the acronym IRGC - is suspected of playing a central role in organising Iran's nuclear programme.

'In state of siege'

That is why the IRGC has been the prime target of four successive rounds of United Nations sanctions.

"By focussing on the Revolutionary Guards for sanctions, by making it clear to financial institutions around the world that doing business with the Revolutionary Guards puts at risk their access to the US financial system, I think they will be under significant pressure," explains Stuart Levey, the man in charge of US policy-making on this issue.

He has an impressive job title: under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US treasury.

But there's no guarantee of success.

Indeed, some people argue sanctions and isolation are actually counterproductive because they create the conditions in which hardline groups, like the Revolutionary Guard, can extend their influence over politics and the economy.

"We are not in normal circumstances," says Abbas Edalat, an Iranian anti-sanctions campaigner and maths professor at Imperial College London.

"Iran has been subjected to threats of regime change, threats of military attack. In these circumstances it is not at all strange that the military gets increasingly more economic power in the country."

Speaking of the guard, he continues: "This is the force that the government can trust to run the economy when Iran is in a state of siege."

That is not a view Mr Levey is ever likely to accept.

"It's hard to argue that the Revolutionary Guard would have wanted to be singled out in UN Security Council resolutions for sanctions," he says.

Well concealed

No doubt the debate will continue.

But there's little dispute about the extent of the guards' business ambitions.

"What we do know is that they are trying to infiltrate every single aspect of the economy and are trying to engage in any kind of economic activity, both legal and illegal," explains Ali Alfoneh, an Iranian research fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.

The IRGC has been building its economic influence for more than 20 years but the process has greatly accelerated since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - himself a former guardsman - took office in 2005.

In that period, the organisation's construction arm, Khatam al-Anbia, has won hundreds of lucrative government contracts in areas like construction, usually without having to bid.

It has also advanced through apparently rigged privatisations and part privatisations of state enterprises that, for example, saw a company affiliated to the guards take ownership of the national telephone service.

The guard is by far the largest investor on the Tehran stock market.

From car manufacturing to mining and clothing, even online shopping, there are few industries they aren't involved in, although often it's hard to tell what they control because it's well concealed.

"The Revolutionary Guard usually engages in trades [on the stock exchange] through front companies with names that vary and change all the time," says Mr Alfoneh.

"They do not want to be perceived as an economic enterprise. They consider themselves and they want to be considered as saviours of Iran, especially from the Iran-Iraq war," he adds.

New business

And that's where the guard's business empire began.

The organisation emerged from the eight-year-long conflict with Iraq in the 1980s as a formidable fighting machine, with organisational and engineering skills to match.

These skills were put to good use in post-war reconstruction, and the guard has been expanding its business activities ever since.

Much more recently, the IRGC has developed a new line of business.

Firms affiliated to the guard have been awarded multi billion-dollar contracts to open up Iran's largest offshore gas field, South Pars.

They have filled the gap left by international energy groups like Shell, Repsol and Total, who have pulled out in response to US pressure and tensions with the government in Tehran.

In economic terms, it may seem mad to entrust the development of one of the nation's most important assets to a military organisation that has no known expertise in energy extraction.

But the politics are easy to understand.

President Ahmadinejad wants to free strategic industries from foreign influence.

But in a clandestine way, the guard is heavily involved in the outside world.

Remarkably for an organisation that's embedded in government, it runs a massive smuggling operation. It brings in everything from contraband to scarce consumer goods, even alcohol which is banned in Iran.

The IRGC is a complex organisation with many different layers.

Some Western analysts see it as a kind of state within a state with its own agenda. Others regard it as directly under the control of hardline elements within the government.

The reality may lie somewhere in between.

It may be both an arm of the state and a power in its own right.

One thing is clear. This is an odd way to run a modern economy.

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