The state-run Khabar Online quoted the commander of the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Tehran on Sunday as saying, “One of the problems we had with the government was that the government kept saying that there would not be a military strike. But, our military commanders consider it a serious probability based on the intelligence and assessments.”
Hossein Hamedani also responded to rival factions by saying that the IRGC was from the very outset of the Iranian regime’s creation actively participating in politics to safeguard the absolute rule of clerics.
He specifically pointed out to the IRGC’s activities to support the election bid of the regime’s first president Abolhassan Banisadr. “Yes, we campaigned for him,” Hamedani said. “Banisadr was really the candidate for the IRGC in Hamedan.”
The IRGC commander in Tehran concluded, “So, those who say that the IRGC has just become political are mistaken. The IRGC was political since the day it was created. Without a place in politics, it would not be what it is today.”