Who are Iran’s Revolutionary Guards? Premium

Explore the role and influence of Iran's Revolutionary Guards amid escalating tensions and their pivotal role in regional conflicts.

On March 6, the seventh day of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, President Donald Trump demanded the “unconditional surrender” of Tehran. “There will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender! After that, the selection of great and acceptable leader(s), we... will... bring Iran back from the brink of destruction...,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post. Soon after, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued a statement that Iran was “fully prepared for a prolonged war”. Ever since the war broke out, the IRGC, an elite branch of Iran’s military, has emerged as the main pillar of the country’s resistance.

Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, who is reportedly acting as a bridge between the armed forces and the political class during the war, is a former IRGC soldier. Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, had fought alongside the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq war and has maintained close ties with the Guards and their allies across West Asia, according to an official biography. Soon after Iran chose Mr. Khamenei as the new leader on February 8, the IRGC pledged its loyalty him.

The IRGC, or Sepah-e-Pasdaran, was one of the earliest revolutionary institutions decreed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the 1979 revolution that brought down the monarchy of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. One of the main objectives of the Pasdaran was to preserve the revolution and the theocratic, constitutional system Khomeini and his followers built. The revolutionaries were wary of the loyalty of Iran’s regular Army that was commanded by royalists until the revolution. They wanted a fighting force that was completely loyal to the clergy. So they went on to build one. Khomeini described the Guards as “the soldiers of Islam”. “Wherever you be, guard yourselves against the self in you and from all the Satans around you,” he told Pasdaran after the group was founded.

The Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88 transformed Pasdaran into a powerful fighting force. The participation of ideologically driven Guards in the war, which ended in a ceasefire after both sides suffered heavy casualties, laid the ground for the IRGC to emerge as the most influential wing of the state. Today, the IRGC and Iran’s regular military (Artesh) operate as two parallel armed wings of the state. While Artesh and the police force are entrusted with protecting the country’s territorial integrity and order at home, Pasdaran’s primary responsibility is the protection of the revolutionary government. With a military wing, an overseas operational unit (Quds Force) and a civilian voluntary organisation (Basij) at home, the IRGC’s operations overlap with the regular service forces. But, under the direct command of the Supreme Leader, the Guards have the resources and capability to influence the direction of the foreign and security policies of the state more than any of its other wings.

According to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, the IRGC has some 1,90,000 trained soldiers under its command, roughly half the size of Iran’s regular forces. The Guards have an Army, which is spread across Iran’s 31 provinces, an ‘aerospace force’ and a navy. It is the IRGC navy that patrols Iran’s maritime borders, including the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman that opens into the Arabian Sea and to the Indian Ocean.

At home, the Guards have made it clear that they remain steadfastly loyal to the clerical establishment. They have deeply penetrated into different institutions of the state and have stood against reformist politicians in the past, especially Mohammad Khatami, Iran’s President from 1997 to 2005. Abroad, the Guards’ responsibility is to neutralise the revolution’s enemies and expand the state’s influence. Its most elite wing perhaps is the Quds Force (Jerusalem Force), which has been tasked with this duty.