Iran’s IRGC Commander Admits to Interference in 2009 Election

In a newly released video, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jaafari, in a speech to an audience which appears to be composed of Guard commanders, details the role of the Guards in the 2009 presidential election and the subsequent violent crackdown of the post-election protest movement.

The video was edited and posted by the Iranian dissident, Mohammad Nourizad, on his Facebook page.

The date of Jaafari’s speech is unknown but from his statements it appears to have been delivered towards the end of 2009.

In his speech, Jaafari details how the return to power of the reformist faction, which he refers to as the “2 Khordaad Front” (referencing the date that the previous reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, was elected in 1997) and “counter-revolutionaries,” was a redline of the Guards and unacceptable to them. He also recounts the Guards’ role in suppressing the post-election protests and how the Friday sermon delivered by the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, immediately following the June 2009 election was a clear signal to repress the protests and was meant as a stern warning to protestors.

This is a rare instance of the Iranian officials who led the 2009 crackdown admitting to their intention to prevent the election of the reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, as well as their systematic policy of violently putting down peaceful post-election protests.