NCRI- Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jaffari, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that the main mission of his organization is to counter internal threats, state-run media reported on Sunday.
Speaking at a ceremony introducing the new commander of Tehran’s paramilitary Bassij Force, Jaffari reiterated the philosophy of IRGC’s existence as the sole protector of the Iranian regime, adding that “in the past few years” there has been “negligence” with this regard, state-run news agency ISNA reported.
Jaffari added that the negligence was due to “a few good years” of participation in Iran-Iraq war during which the IRGC had mainly “military activities” that caused “little attention be paid to other dimensions” of IRGC’s responsibilities.
He said that defending the regime “is no longer limited to military activities,” and called for reorganization of the IRGC and review of its missions.
Jaffari’s remarks follows last week’s comments by Brig. Gen.,Yadollah Javani, IRGC’s political chief in an interview with the organization’s official weekly Sobh-e-sadegh. In response to the question on the limits of IRGC’s involvement in politics, Javani quoted Khamenei saying “the IRGC deeds are not limited to military responsibilities. They also include political and cultural dimensions.”
Javani was asked if the IRGC should be neutral at the time of internal feuding among various political tendencies and groups?
He responded that although there has been a red line set by Khomeini not to identify itself with any political group, however one has to bear in mind that “it does not mean that the IRGC should stand aside and take no actions against these groups.”
“Any group that would stand in the way of the Velayat [Supreme Leader] … must know that IRGC would act against it,” Javani added.