Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vow support for Ahmadinejad

Iran Focus: a pro-MEK website

The Supreme Commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) reaffirmed his force’s “solid support” for the hard-line government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a government-run website reported on Friday.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an inauguration ceremony for the new Deputy Interior Ministry, Major General Yahya Rahim said that the IRGC would help the ministry in ensuring national security. “We will help the government and the Interior Ministry to bring about security. We believe it to be our duty to support the government”, the IRGC chief said. READ MORE

In a significant move to bolster the control of the IRGC over Iran’s civilian institutions, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved the appointment of the IRGC Deputy Commandant for the top Interior Ministry post. Brigadier General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr was placed in charge of internal security under Interior Minister Hojjatoleslam Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi.

Asked about the significance of the recent appointment of many IRGC officers as provincial governors, Safavi said, “Whenever the president requests any sort of help from us in running and developing the country, we consider it our duty to support his government”.

Zolqadr will be working closely with another IRGC general, Mohammad Jaafari, who is in charge of the internal security directorate at the Supreme National Security Council. Together with Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, another Revolutionary Guards general who was earlier appointed as the chief of the country’s paramilitary police, the trio will effectively have total control over internal security.