The Guards Press for Greater Influence

Rooz Online

The supreme commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Mohammad Ali Jaafari has said that to be a follower of the velayate (i.e., clerical leadership) means that one must “melt into velayate” or completely surrender to the decisions and orders of the supreme clerical leader, the vali faghih. He singled out the authorities of the Islamic regime: “The authorities of the Islamic system who desire to implement the policies of leadership and Islam in particular must possess this special quality. Someone who believes himself to be a devotee of the velayate must not have a view different from him and must have faith that the view of the velayate is the best and right, of course this is not easy.”

The commander continued his speech by saying, “In the words of ayatollah Khamenei we are in the third phase of the revolution and this is the time to Islamicize the organizations of the country. I stress again that to go beyond the third phase of the revolution the key posts of the regime and those in the organizational chain of the agencies must be held and managed by revolutionary forces and the Basiji para-military personnel. Otherwise, we will continue to stagnate in the current phase.”

In the 90s, Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri introduced the term “melt into velayat.” His political rivals objected. Their criticism grew so much that ayatollah Khamenei intervened and spoke about it to Majlis representatives of the seventh Majlis. “I do not understand the meaning of the notion of ‘melt into the velayate.’ It should be ‘melt into Islam’ because velayate is already melted into Islam. (speech on 6/17/2004)

But despite this, the Revolutionary Guards leader believes that the officials and authorities of the Islamic regime must be completely submissive to the views of the supreme leader of the Islamic republic and melt themselves into the velayate, i.e., into melt themselves into his rule. This is why he pushes for the key posts of the state and those within the organizational chain be held by members of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij.

But the presence of Revolutionary Guards and Basijis at all levels of state administrative bodies in the past has built up much resistance as well. The opposition of the Guards’ involvement in politics goes back to the remarks of ayatollah Khomeini in which he said it was not right for militarymen to interfere in politics. Those who promote and advocate the Guards’ involvement in politics and the government do not accept Khomeini’s view. In early 2008 Seyed Hassan Khomeini to Shahrvand magazine, “The difference between a military and political person is simply in that the military one carries a weapon. One way to judge whether society has moved away from the views and course defined by Khomeini is whether the military participate in the affairs of the state or not.”

Those who want more military involvement in politics believe this view to be wrong. For example, seyed Ahmad Elm al Hoda, the imam of Mashhad has said, “The imam (ayatollah Khomeini) never said that the Guards should not get involved in politics. Three years ago I told the Basij that they must stay involved in politics. Right after that, seyed Hassan Khomeini called me and said that my words contradicted the words of ayatollah Khamenei. Mr. Ansari also said the same thing.”

At one time, Ali Saeedi, ayatollah Khamenei’s representative in the Guards had said, “Members of the armed forces can go be in the Majlis and because of their expertise, take organized positions vis-à-vis decisions and the present of Guards members in elections and the Majlis is in a way guarding the revolution.”

But even with the current presence of hundreds of Guards members in government and state positions, the current commander of the force believes that this is not enough and calls for more posts to be held by them.

The important point of such presence is that these individuals hold state positions while being Guards members and therefore report to their chain of command in the Guards.

Guards commanders occupy many key posts in state organizations, both political and economic. Recently, a report indicated that tens of Guards members had been placed as managers of sports clubs in the country.

This state of affairs has even brought forth complaints from regime insiders. For example, Kanoone Farhangie Rahpooyan Vesal, affiliated to the Shiraz Hezbollah recently proposed that laws be passed so that Guards commanders are banned from participating in football.