Revolutionary Guard head hits out at Rouhani's government

The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard has hit out at Hassan Rouhani's government in the surest sign yet of splits that have emerged between the regime's main pillars since the Geneva nuclear deal.

Maj-Gen Mohammed Jafari, said that Mr Rouhani's government had been "infected by Western doctrine", according to Fars news agency.

Since his election as president in June, Mr Rouhani has moved swiftly to improve relations with the West and tone down both the anti-American and even anti-Israel rhetoric of his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

This shift has come under vocal attack from regime hardliners, led by representatives of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command, which has carved out a powerful economic and political niche in addition to its military role as spearhead of the Islamic Revolution.

Mr Jafari seems to have been angered by comments made by Javad Zarif, the foreign minister who negotiated last month's nuclear deal, in which he warned that Iran should take the military threat posed by America seriously as it had little fear of Tehran's military defences and could destroy them easily if necessary.

He later said his words had been taken out of context, but Mr Jafari slapped him down anyway. "We consider him an experienced diplomat, but he has no experience in the military field," he said.

His comments on the broader thrust of Iranian government policy will be taken more seriously.

Mr Rouhani has used the threat to his administration posed by "hardliners" back home to urge greater concessions from the West.

However there are increasing signs that the Revolutionary Guard's leaders are worried about the rapprochement with the West, which undermines the political importance of the Guard as "chief guarantor of the revolution" – or its chief promulgator abroad, as some see it.

"The military, systems and procedures governing the administrative system of the country are the same as before, (but it) has been slightly modified and unfortunately infected by Western doctrine, and a fundamental change must occur," Fars quoted Mr Jafari as saying.

"The main threat to the revolution is in the political arena and the Guard cannot remain silent in the face of that."

As both Iran and the West prepare for more talks in Geneva next month, this time over the future of Syria, he also insisted that his "specialist forces" would continue to give support to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad as it was "the front line of the Islamic Revolution".

Source: Telegraph