who are the Revolutionary Guards Corps?
Is there a real danger of Islamist hardline forces coming to power in Iran, and what are the implications of this possibility for Israel, Britain and other western countries? The 125,000 strong Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps is an entirely independent section of the Iranian armed forces, possessing its own ground, air and naval wings, and its own separate chain of command.5 It sees itself as specially tasked with the defence of the Islamic revolution. The IRGC is answerable not to reformist President Mohammed Khatami, but rather to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme leader, the most prominent figure in the extreme Islamist tendency in the country.6 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, architect of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, forbade the Guards from taking part in the political life of the country, before his death in 1989. This prohibition, however, has begun to break down. The Guards are currently making an organised foray into the political life of Iran, in a move which coul
