Slater Bakhtavar
Subsequent to the June 9 elections tarred by fraud, a poorly-known organization further increased its power in Iran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini created the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“Pasdaran” or “IRGC”) following the 1979 Islamic Revolution to safeguard the foundations of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while countering influence of the regular military. Today, the IRGC, nominally still charged to enforce the strict moral codes of the nation, has delegated that responsibility to a volunteer paramilitary Islamic group, the “Basij”, technically under the IRGC umbrella.
