There is no sign that the IRGC\u2019s loyalty to the government is wavering, as it derives its strength from the survival of the Islamic republic. For this ideologically driven and economically powerful fighting force, the unrest is an existential threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite decades of Western sanctions on the group \u2014 including new ones<\/a> in recent weeks \u2014 its coffers and muscle have continued to grow. But each cycle of violence further erodes the legitimacy of the IRGC in the eyes of the Iranian public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSure, they can show up with tanks tomorrow and kill enough people to put down protests for a while,\u201d said Afshon Ostovar, an associate professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School. \u201cBut they have lost this generation \u2026 With every violent act they are putting one more nail in their coffin.\u201dAt the center of Iran\u2019s uprising, Kurds now face a mounting crackdown<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The IRGC was founded as a counterweight to Iran\u2019s other security forces \u2014 a way to prevent a revolution like the one that first brought the Islamic republic to power in 1979.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Revolutionary Guard are \u201cso synonymous with the regime they can\u2019t be divorced from it,\u201d Ostovar said. \u201cThey are both the front end of the spear as well as the figure holding that spear.\u201d<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel stand guard in downtown Tehran during a rally in April.\u00a9 Morteza Nikoubazl\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Shah in 1979, the Shiite revolutionaries who won out purged the existing military, called the Artesh, and the shah\u2019s fearsome intelligence agency. In their place, they created their own security state undergirded by the IRGC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini constitutionally tasked the Revolutionary Guard with protecting the Islamic Republic and its ideals inside and outside the country. The IRGC, in turn, created the Basij, a volunteer force modeled on Scouting organizations. The goal was to indoctrinate young people and infiltrate communities, said Alfoneh, turning civilians into agents of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The IRGC\u2019s profile rose during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, as the guard took charge of training young soldiers to send to the front. As a reward for its service \u2014 and to prevent massive unemployment among decommissioned fighters \u2014 the guard was given control of Khatam al-Anbiya, the first of Iran\u2019s many military-run economic enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The engineering firm was tasked with rebuilding the war-battered country, said Roya Izadi, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island. But the Revolutionary Guard profited mightily, diverting large amounts of money to its own banks and institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBy giving it a role in the economy, they give it enough incentives to stay with the government if the army were to stage a coup or if there was a mass uprising as you see right now,\u201d said Izadi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Khatam al-Anbiya is now among Iran\u2019s largest contractors, working in mining, gas, oil, petrochemicals and other industrial projects, Izadi said<\/a>. The IRGC directly controls at least 275 firms, 54 of which are owned by the Basij, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the years, Washington and its Western allies have imposed round after round of sanctions on the IRGC and Iran\u2019s banking and financial institutions, efforts ramped up by President Donald Trump as part of his \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But rather than punish and constrain the IRGC, critics say, sanctions have enabled the guard to dominate Iran\u2019s isolated economy and its thriving black market, including the oil smuggling trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Revolutionary Guard has been sanctioned and stigmatized now for more than two decades, but in this period it has become more powerful, more enriched, more repressive at home and more aggressive in the region,\u201d said Ali Vaez, director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group\u2019s Iran Project. \u201cIn the process, the middle class has been devastated and impoverished,\u201d he added.They dream of reaching America. Their forced service in Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard locks them out.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The hollowing out of the middle class, as well as Iran\u2019s growing isolation and entrenched corruption, have added to the fury of the protests now sweeping the country, which Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has blamed on \u201cthugs\u201d and foreign instigators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 200 protesters have been killed<\/a> and thousands more injured and arrested in the government crackdown, though reporting restrictions and communication cuts make the true toll impossible to verify. More than 30 members of the security forces have died in the unrest, including 18 members of the Basij and six members of the full-time Revolutionary Guard, according to Alfoneh,<\/a> who cited media reports on funerals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In cities, towns and universities across the country, protesters have been squaring off with volunteers from the Basij, often lower-class Iranians who see membership and its financial benefits as a ticket to social advancement, Alfoneh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IRGC offices and headquarters have also been a target of protesters, in particular in minority areas such as Kurdistan and Sistan and Baluchestan province, where the guards are often brought out as a first resort and have taken part in military-style occupations of some cities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This uprising \u201cis definitely the longest social movement\u201d in recent times, Azadi said, but the Basij, along with regular law enforcement, have largely been able to contain the protests because demonstrators have avoided congregating in large numbers in a single location. By contrast, millions of people took to the streets in 2009 to support the Green Movement, sparking a more rapid deployment of the full-time IRGC troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So far this time, Iran\u2019s leaders appear to be using \u201cbrute force deliberately\u201d \u2014 including the use of live ammunition and the targeting of children<\/a> \u2014 to coerce protesters back home, Ostovar said. \u201cThey have no problem doing it on a small scale,\u201d he said. \u201cThe political risks of doing that [on a larger scale] are more severe and could be unpredictable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/codir.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/AA13pIqq.jpg\")
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