Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; Persian: سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enqelâb-e Eslâmī, lit. 'Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution'), also known as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards,[13][14][15][16] is a multi-service primary branch of the Iranian Armed Forces. It was officially established by Ruhollah Khomeini as a military branch in May 1979, in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution.[1][17] Whereas the Iranian Army protects the country's sovereignty in a traditional capacity, the IRGC's constitutional mandate is to ensure the integrity of the Islamic Republic.[18] Most interpretations of this mandate assert that it entrusts the IRGC with preventing foreign interference in Iran, thwarting coups by the traditional military, and crushing "deviant movements" that harm the ideological legacy of the Islamic Revolution.[19] Currently, the IRGC is designated as a terrorist organization by Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and the United States.[20][21][22]
"IRGC" redirects here. For other uses, see IRGC (disambiguation).Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
وَأَعِدُّوا لَهُمْ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُمْ مِنْ قُوَّةٍ [Quran 8:60]
"Prepare against them what you ˹believers˺ can of ˹military˺ power." (heraldic slogan)
Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami
Cdre Ali Fadavi
≈50,000 (2019), recruited mostly from active members of Basij[3]
$6.96 billion (2020)[6]
- 1979 Kurdish rebellion
- Iran–Iraq War
- Lebanese Civil War
- US invasion of Afghanistan
- Balochistan conflict
- 2006 Lebanon War
- Iran–PJAK conflict
- Iranian intervention in the Syrian civil war
- Iranian intervention in Iraq (2014–present)
- Iranian intervention in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq, Jordan, and Syria during the Israel–Hamas war
- 2024 Iranian strikes against Israel
As of 2024, the IRGC had approximately 125,000 total personnel. The IRGC Navy is now Iran's primary force exercising operational control over the Persian Gulf.[23] The IRGC's Basij, a paramilitary volunteer militia, has about 90,000 active personnel.[24][25] It operates a media arm, known as "Sepah News" within Iran.[26] On 16 March 2022, it adopted a new independent branch called the "Command for the Protection and Security of Nuclear Centres" involved with Iran's nuclear programme.[27]
Originating as an ideological militia, the IRGC has taken a greater role in nearly every aspect of Iranian politics and society. In 2010, BBC described the organization as an "Empire".[28] In 2019, Reuters described it as "an industrial empire with political clout".[29] IRGC's expanded social, political, military, and economic role under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—especially during the 2009 presidential election and the suppression of post-election protests—has led many Western analysts to argue that it has surpassed even the country's ruling clerical class in terms of political power.[30][31][32][33]
Since 2019, Hossein Salami has served as the IRGC's incumbent commander-in-chief.[34][29]
Terminology
Government organizations in Iran are commonly known by one-word names (that generally denote their function) rather than acronyms or shortened versions, and the general populace universally refers to the IRGC as Sepâh (سپاه). Sepâh has a historical connotation of soldiers, while in modern Persian it is also used to describe a corps-sized unit – in modern Persian Artesh (ارتش) is the more standard term for an army.
Pâsdârân (پاسداران) is the plural form of Pâsdâr (پاسدار), meaning "Guardian", and members of Sepah are known as Pāsdār, which is also their title and comes after their rank.
Apart from the name Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,[35][36][37] the Iranian Government, media, and those who identify with the organization generally use Sepāh-e Pâsdârân (Army of the Guardians), although it is not uncommon to hear Pâsdârân-e Enghelâb (پاسداران انقلاب) (Guardians of the Revolution), or simply Pâsdârân (پاسداران) (Guardians) as well. Among the Iranian population, and especially among diaspora Iranians, using the word Pasdaran indicates hatred or admiration for the organization.
Most foreign governments and the English-speaking mass media tend to use the term Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) or simply the Revolutionary Guards.[38] In the US media, the force is frequently referred to interchangeably as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).[39][40][41][42] The US government standard is Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,[43] while the United Nations uses Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.[44]