Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) : The Power Behind the Rhetoric

Iran Analytical Report : The Non-Partisan Resource for Iran
While Iran’s aggressive tactics in the UK incident surprised many, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has gained an unprecedented amount of power and influence in the last few years. No longer limited to the military sphere, the IRGC’s top leaders now hold key political posts and have grown wealthy through sweetheart deals with President Ahmadinejad. This militarization is by no means an accident; in fact, it is a deliberate strategy by the clerical leadership. President Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ was the culmination of what Ayatollah Khamenei saw as the failure of diplomacy during Mohammad Khatami’s eight-year term. With dwindling options, Khamenei and the clerical leadership decided that ‘hard’ power was the only way to protect the Islamic Republic.
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