"The statement by US President Donald Trump about a change of power occurring in Iran is not entirely far from the truth. The vast majority of observers believe that power in Iran has passed into the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). After the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, his son Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed in his place, and after the killing of Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani, Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr was appointed in his place, all carried out according to the will of the IRGC. The dispute between the only Iranian official elected by the people, President Masoud Pezeshkian, and IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi ended with the victory of the latter, which is further evidence confirming that power has passed into the hands of the leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. As the effects of the war increase, the IRGC is turning into a terrorist organization that hides its soldiers in schools and seeks opportunities for terrorist attacks abroad."
This was stated by political analyst Khagani Jafarli in an interview with Medianews.az.
He noted that the IRGC, officially recognized as a terrorist organization by the US, European Union, Canada, Sweden, Belgium, Lithuania, Ukraine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, has become even more radicalized since the war started: "Moreover, despite losing several generals, the IRGC maintains its combat capabilities. Certain presidents in the Middle East have already begun to realize the need to think about the fate of IRGC members. This is reminiscent of how the ISIS terrorist organization was created by high-ranking officers of Saddam Hussein’s army after the dictator’s overthrow in Iraq. Information obtained by Germany’s Der Spiegel revealed that ISIS’s first caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was brought to this position in 2010 by a small group of former Iraqi intelligence officers. Der Spiegel’s documents also prove that the strategy of ISIS was developed by Samir Abd Muhammad al-Khlifawi, a colonel rank officer who served in Iraq’s intelligence during Saddam Hussein’s era."
Jafarli emphasized that all of this should compel the US and regional states to think now about the future of the IRGC members: "Otherwise, this armed force with over 200,000 members, linked to more than 110 proxy forces abroad and capable of carrying out all kinds of terror, sabotage, and assassinations, will continue to spread death around for many years. To prevent or at least significantly reduce the possible threat that may come from IRGC members after the collapse of Iran, we must have precise information about the identities of the personnel of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Without this information, lustration of the IRGC is impossible.
If the international community struggles to isolate a few thousand ISIS fighters, how will it isolate the more experienced 200,000 fighters? All these questions are far more important than the question of whether Iran will collapse or not. Iran inevitably will collapse, but the 200,000-strong IRGC force will not disappear along with the collapsing state."
Naile Qasimova,
Medianews.az