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Eight months inside Sepah. [ personal history ] Day -4: This is it In Iran, every man (or boy) has to perform military service when he turns 18. You can postpone it if you are accepted into university, but eventually it must be done and now, having finished years of academic study, it is my turn. Of course, there are ways to avoid it -- if you have a serious illness, if you are the caretaker of your family, if you are the only male child and your father is over 59 years old, and some others that I don't...

Any mention of an Iranian nuclear weapon is taboo in the Islamic Republic, which insists that its nuclear programme is entirely for peaceful, civil purposes. So it is remarkable, to say the least, that an article has appeared on the Gerdab website, run by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, anticipating the day after Iran's first test of a nuclear warhead. Here is a translation of the text: The day after Iran's first nuclear test is a normal day. The day after Islamic Republic of Iran's first nuclear test will be an ordinary day for us Iranians but in the eyes of some...

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Iran Seeking to Increase Speed of IRGC Vessels to 80-85 Knots TEHRAN (FNA)- The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy plans to boost the high mobility of its vessels in the next few months, the IRGC Navy commander announced on Sunday, adding that IRGC experts are working on projects to increase the speed of missile-launching and fully armed vessels to 80-85 knots. "Increasing the speed of the vessels which carry arms and equipment to 80-85 knots sets the objective of the IRGC naval force for the next Iranian year (starts on March 21)," Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said, and stressed,...

The WikiLeaks document dump continues to kick up surprises. A new diplomatic cable says the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard smacked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the face for suggesting easing restrictions on the press. The February 2010 cable, classified secret and puckishly headlined, "He Who Got Slapped," quotes an intelligence source recounting a contentious meeting of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. The Iranian bigs were trying to figure out what to do in the wake of Tehran's explosive pro-democracy street protests of 2009.

Iran's army has finished a large military exercise by ground forces near the Iraqi border, the state news agency reported Monday. But unlike previous war games in which Iran boasted of weapons advances, the latest maneuvers were largely held under wraps. The report by the IRNA news agency was the first public word that the maneuvers had been held, and even IRNA's confirmation came only indirectly. The report was about the death of two military officers in a road accident as they came back from "large" exercises by ground forces.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday the Obama administration believes Iran is becoming a military dictatorship. In remarks to Arab students at Carnegie Mellon's campus in Qatar, Clinton said the Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran appears to have gained so much power, saying "the Revolutionary Guard ... we believe is, in effect, supplanting the government of Iran." "That is how we see it. We see that the government of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the parliament, is being supplanted and that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship. That is our view." Clinton's comments came after...

The Revolutionary Guard Corps has "gained primacy" in Iran since the 2009 presidential election, fueling fears there that the country is becoming militarized, a Pentagon-sponsored study said Tuesday. The study by the RAND Corporation also urged US policymakers to take "great care" in their statements regarding Iran in order not to give the leadership a pretext to divert attention from domestic troubles, like the economy. The disputed election was "a watershed event" in the Islamic republic's history "that has altered elite relationships and solidified the position of the Islamist right and the Revolutionary Guards in Iranian politics," it said. In...

After three decades, the revolution is returning. Back the government of the Shah was corrupt and unpopular, and the small businessmen and clerics supported widespread discontent, which evolved into massive demonstrations that the security forces were not willing to put down with force. It's different this time, in that hundreds of thousands of hard core government supporters are in the Revolutionary Guard. Unlike the shah's forces, the Revolutionary Guard contains a lot of Islamic true believers, who will shoot to kill. They have already done this. Will they do it on a large enough scale to intimidate most Iranians? The...

The government has given control over most of the navy to the more politically reliable Revolutionary Guard. The navy (and the rest of the armed forces) recently held a weeklong "defense exercise" to see how well prepared the armed forces were to resist an attack on Iranian nuclear weapons facilities. This was another propaganda drill, because Iran has very weak air defense systems (no modern long range missile systems, no first rate jet interceptors). Iran's military leadership has also been ruined by decades of promotions given to the most politically reliable, not the most militarily competent. Decades of embargoes have...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — At least five commanders of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps were killed and dozens of others left dead and injured in two terrorist bombings in the restive region of the nation’s southeastern frontier with Pakistan, according to multiple Iranian state news agencies. The coordinated attacks appeared to mark an escalation in hostilities between Iran’s leadership and one of the nation’s many disgruntled ethnic and religious minorities, in this case the Baluchis. The southeast region, Sistan-Baluchistan, has been the scene of terrorist attacks in the past, and in April the government put the Guards Corps in...

TEHRAN, Iran – A suicide bomber killed five senior commanders of the powerful Revolutionary Guard and at least 37 others Sunday near the Pakistani border in the heartland of a potentially escalating Sunni insurgency. The attack — which also left dozens wounded — was the most high-profile strike against security forces in an outlaw region of armed tribal groups, drug smugglers and Sunni rebels known as Jundallah, or Soldiers of God. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised sharp retaliation. But a sweeping offensive by authorities is unlikely. Iranian officials have been reluctant to open full-scale military operations in the southeastern border zone,...

A suicide bomber killed five senior commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guard and at least 26 others

Iran has warned it will take revenge against the US and Britain, accusing them of being involved in a suicide bombing that killed several Revolutionary Guard commanders. Six senior commanders and dozens of civilians died in the attack. The headquarters of the armed forces blamed the bombing on "terrorists" backed by "the Great Satan America and its ally Britain", the semi-official Fars News Agency reported. "Not in the distant future we (Iran) will take revenge." Earlier, Iranian state television said Sunni rebels carried out the bombing. It said the militant group Jundallah (Soldiers of God) had claimed responsibility for the...

The IRNA news agency said the dead included the deputy commander of the Guard's ground force, Gen. Noor Ali Shooshtari, as well as a chief provincial Guard commander for the area, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh. The other dead were Guard members or local tribal leaders. Dozens of others were wounded, the report said. The commanders were inside a car on their way to a meeting in the Pishin region near Iran's border with Pakistan when an attacker with explosives blew himself up, IRNA said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the region in Iran's southeast has been at the...

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's official news agency is reporting that at least five senior commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guard have been killed in a homicide bombing in southeastern Iran

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's list of cabinet nominees reveals a determination to fill the top positions in Iran's government from a coterie of loyal men, plus three women, many of whom are strongly linked to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). Under Ahmadinejad's previous administration there was a distinct militarisation of politics: many ministers, as well as ambassadors, mayors, provincial governors and senior bureaucrats, were drawn from the guards. Ahmadinejad himself is widely associated with the IRGC, but in an interview his adviser insisted that the president had never been a member and was present only "when necessary" (although when pressed the adviser...

Why Iran's Changed Forever Reuel Marc Gerecht: Whatever Happens In Tehran, There's No Going Back To Khomeini's Islamic Republic. Who's Who Iran's Election: Key Players A look at the most important figures in Iran's contested presidential election. Stories Candidate Withdraws Iran Fraud Complaint Intensified Crackdown Mutes Iran Protests (Weekly Standard) Reuel Marc Gerecht, a Weekly Standard contributing editor, is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The modern Middle East has had numerous "game-changing" moments, when history turned. Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt in 1798, Muhammad Ali's conquest of the Nile Valley in 1805, and the...

One of the founders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, who's also a former deputy prime minister, tells Weekend Edition's Scott Simon that what amounts to a "military coup" has occurred in his country. And he claims authorities know the election was rigged.

There is chatter in some quarters that the Iranian ‘green revolution' may be petering out. Well, it depends whom you’re reading. The Iran expert Michael Ledeen says he has no idea what’s going to happen. But there are signs that the regime is preparing for an all-out assault; and that they are panicking and the ayatollahs are at odds amongst themselves; and that, most interestingly of all, this: ...that there are cracks in the regime’s edifice, ranging from declarations of small groups of Revolutionary Guards calling on their brothers to defect to “the people,” to a phenomenon that is just...