The Creeping Coup of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps

 

By Mohammad Farsi

By electing Gen. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of parliament, it seems a softly and creeping coup is being made by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Currently, up to 80 percent of seats in the Parliament are held by the members of Revolutionary Guard and the authoritarian hardline mullahs. Provinces and governorates are also mostly run by the Revolutionary Guard’s generals. More than 50 percent of the country’s economy are controlled by Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarter, economic powerbase of IRGC, along with the Office of the Supreme Leader. Nearly all of Iran’s most profitable corporations are owned either by the IRGC and/or by the Office of the Supreme Leader. It is clearly stablished that General Ghalibaf is involved in most of the crimes, atrocities and briberies perpetrated by the Revolutionary Guards.

Right after being elected as the new speaker of the Parliament, in his first interview, Ghalibaf declared Hassan Rouhani’s government inefficient and useless. “Any kind of negotiation with the United States of America would be dangerous and harmful to the people of Iran,” he said.

It is useful, in brief, to look at some of Ghalibaf’s political and economic background. To start with, he is one of the most devotees of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He took part in the Iran-Iraq war along with Mohsen Rezaei who was then commander-in-chief of the IRGC, including other political leaders including the former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. For example despite the Liberation of Khorramshahr and pushing the Iraqi army out of the country by the Iranian army, and not the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime  continued the war with Iraq for 8 years with the slogan that the way to Jerusalem (Ghods) is through the city of Karbala in Iraq; that is to conquer Iraq first.

Although the eight years of the war was all in vain and fruitless for the Iranians, costing much economy and personnel fatalities, it was a blessing for the regime to build up and firm its foundation, as said by Khomeini. General Ghalibaf is one of the IRGC’s commanders who emerged and won status from this useless and costly war. It is worth noting that Ghalibaf was trained at the heart of Ramazan Headquarters, in Kurdistan, along with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Former President) and other leaders of the Revolutionary Guards. Most of these commanders are now at the top of the regime’s mafia network.

After the war, Ghalibaf was appointed as the Commander of the Law Enforcement, Police Force, when he proved his dedication and devotion as being a suitably qualified officer within the regime directorship infrastructure.

Also, for 12 consecutive years, Ghalibaf was selected Mayor of Tehran from 2005 to 2017. It was during this period that he revealed his true vile and corrupt nature. He played a key role in the suppression of protests in Tehran during 2009 demonstration, known as the Iranian Green Movement, as well as killing of Iranian students in their dormitory at Teheran University in that year.

During his presidential election campaign in 2009, he used a slogan saying if he becomes president, he would be like Reza Shah (the founder of Pahlavi Dynasty), a terminology that would not go well with the Supreme Leader’s Office. After he lost the 2009 election to Ahammadinejad, he was warned about being careful if he wished to remain in power. He used this slogan during his election campaign in an attempt to convince people to vote for him, as after 30 od years of the regime in power, the people, in their demonstration against the regime, used this slogan “Reza Shah Come Back”. He promised in his campaign manifesto he would form a cabinet dedicated to the people’s interests and social affairs and injustices. He kept saying that after being elected as the president of Iran, he would draw up plans to develop the country’s infrastructures in a similar way as did Reza Shah.

Reference to Reza Shah’s thinking, although only as a campaign slogan, a lawsuit was filed against Ghalibaf by the Office of the Supreme Leader to warn him that the use of slogan from Pahlavi’s era has not passed unnoticed. The lawsuit was meant to warn him to watch for his ambitious behavior. The court case included his financial corruption while he was serving as the Mayor of Tehran. The truth about his acts of corruption was partly revealed also by Ruhollah Zam (the Iranian activist and former journalist, best-known for running a Telegram channel named, ‘Amadnews’). Later, Ghalibaf joined with the Revolutionary Guards gang of robbers that made him a “dead lost politician” playing in the hands of the Supreme Leader. It can be said that general Ghalibaf is such a corrupt and deceitful operator, a genius, that even the Office of the Supreme Leader cannot possibly trust.

Ghalibaf is also a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and has received the ‘verification of competency’ approval by the Guardian Council for three presidential and one parliamentary election. It is quite noticeable that three rivals in the 2017 Iranian Presidential Election, who during the election campaign disclosed such a vast details of each other’s acts of corruption, all have taken seats as the heads of the three most important  offices of the country: Executive, Judiciary and Legislative; namely the president, head of judicial system and the speaker of house of parliament, Majlis

At present, the majority of members of Iran’s Parliament are selected by Ali Khamenei. Therefore, Ghalibaf would not be able to exercise or take any action beyond what is stated by the Supreme Leader. Despite his position as the Speaker of the Parliament, he is obliged to comply with and take measures in line with the creeping coup of the IRGC, which is being staged managed by the Office of the Supreme Leader.

Therefore, it is necessary for the people of Iran, especially politicians, lawyers, economists and by enlarge technocrats be vigilant and observant with the activities of the present three branches of power, in particular the Majlis. It is worth noting, due to unwise hostility toward the western democracy, the regime has politically isolated itself, globally. To compensate for this, over the past few years, people of Iran have witnessed the regime has been forced to granted enormous amount of economic concessions to Russia and China  in order to win their global support, especially within the United Nations Security Council

A highly visible of these concessions is the regime’s “generosity” in giving the Iranian share of the Caspian Sea away to Russia. The politicians and lawyers have raised their voice, published and spoken their concerns about this issue extensively and have made the people aware of what’s has taken place in regard to the severance of a part of Iranian territory. The corrupt Islamic regime has been warned and condemned about this injudicious measure taken by the officials of the regime agreeing to and surrendering part of Iranian territory to Russia. However, must be said the agreement that Hasan Rouhani, the president of Iran has signed in the Kazakhstan Convention in 2019, on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, would not be internationally acknowledged without the Majlis’ approval. Now that the Majlis is taken over by a group of hardliner mullahs and the representatives of the Revolutionary Guard, it is more probable than ever, that Iran’s territorial legal rights in the Caspian Sea might be lost forever.

 

The opinion expressed do not necessarily reflect those of ITC