Iran’s Revolutionary Guards: The Supreme Leader’s Military-Industrial Complex

Who are the Islamic Revolutionary Guards?

Founded in the early days of the 1979 Iranian revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps started as a military force assigned to safeguard the new government and Mr. Khomeini, who as supreme leader was Iran’s most powerful theological and political figure. The Guard Corps reported directly to Mr. Khomeini and later to his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, so its power cannot easily be checked by Iran’s other institutions.

Since its founding, the Guard Corps has vastly expanded and now constitutes one of the three main branches of Iran’s armed forces, along with the army and the police.

The Guard Corps has more than 125,000 active duty personnel and controls a paramilitary force known as the Basij, according to a survey by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a British research group. The Basij often has been used to repress antigovernment protesters, according to Iranian dissidents and others.

The Guard also has specialists in ballistic missile technology and asymmetric warfare, along with its own air force, navy and intelligence service. Critics accuse the Guard’s intelligence operatives of tracking down anyone deemed an enemy of the state.