I.R.G.C. Chief Calls for Preparing Next Generation to Defend Revolution and Export It Abroad

The chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) has called for preparing Iran’s next generation to defend the country’s clerical establishment and export its revolution abroad. “The next phase of the Islamic Revolution is creating an Islamic government, Islamizing the society, and expanding the Islamic Revolution across the world,” Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari told more than a thousand teachers and school principals at a gathering organized by the Basij Organization on Sunday. “This is because the Revolution’s internal dimension is very important as it shapes up its foreign aspect,” he emphasized. The top I.R.G.C. general also claimed the Islamic Republic has an upper hand in regional security and political dynamics. “With God’s help, all plots by America, Israel and despised and anti-Islam Saudi Arabia against the Islamic Revolution have been defeated,” he told the audience. And he credited Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, for successfully exporting the Islamic Revolution outside Iran. “Enemies imposed the war [with Iraq in 1980s] on us to avert the export of the revolution to the world,” he said. “But thirty eight years after the revolution,” he added, “this movement has gone beyond the borders… Iran’s morale support to resistance forces in the region caused the defeat of these countries in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.”

Comment: Iranian leaders, particularly senior clerics and I.R.G.C. generals, do not shy away from expressing their desire and intention to export Iran’s revolution abroad. Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini publicly called for it just as he toppled the Shah and established the Islamic Republic in 1979. While Khomeini initially created the I.R.G.C. to safeguard his fragile rule from internal and external threats, the I.R.G.C. and its elite Quds Force soon became the Islamic Republic’s main instrument to expand its ideological and political spheres of influence in the region. Although Khomeini soon realized that his ambitious goal of making Iran the capital of the world’s Muslim community was unrealistic – particularly after a majority of Iraqi Shiites did not side with the Islamic Republic against the Saddam Hussein in the 1980s war – the I.R.G.C. has continued to broaden Iran’s influence in the region, albeit with limited success. Today, the I.R.G.C. has established formal and informal alliances with a wide range of state and non-state actors and regional militant and terrorist groups to advance Iran’s regional agenda.

In a remark similar to Jafari’s, Khamenei’s representative to I.R.G.C. said last month Iran’s revolution is a “prelude to internationalization of Islam,” and that the Iranian regime has “foiled all American plots” in the past 38 years. Hojjatoleslam Ali Saeedi, however, cautioned that the revolution is also facing serious domestic and foreign threats – primarily the “arrogant front led by America and secular liberals at home.” He also warned that the United States and its allies have had some success in promoting “Western ideology, liberal democracy model, culture and lifestyle” inside Iran. “The power and might of the Islamic revolution has so far thwarted all plots and evil actions of America. According to their own statements, Iran is considered an influential power in the world, and we see its influence in power dynamics in the region,” he boasted. “On the other hand, the American strategy to provide security for the Zionists [Israelis] has not only failed, but the occupying Zionists, who once pursued the ‘Nile to Euphrates’ strategy, today do not enjoy security even within the occupied territories.”