Pasdaran

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PASDARAN

The Pasdaran (Sepah-e Pasdaran-e Enghelab-e Eslami, or Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps) was established under a decree issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini, as leader of the Islamic revolution, on 5 May 1979. The corps of Revolutionary Guards were intended to guard the revolution and to assist the ruling clerics in the day-to-day enforcement of the government's Islamic codes and morality. The Pasdaran, as the guardians of the revolution, would counter the threat posed by either the leftist guerrillas or the officers suspected of continued loyalty to the shah. The revolution also needed to rely on a force of its own rather than borrowing the monarchic regime's tainted forces, however disorganized and undertrained such a force might be in the first years of establishment. The Pasdaran, along with its political counterpart, Crusade for Reconstruction, brought a new order to Iran. The Pasdaran and Crusade for Reconstruction had their own separate ministries in the first decade after revolution, but then they were merged with other ministries.

In time, the Pasdaran came to duplicate the police and the judiciary in terms of its functions. It even challenged the performance of the regular armed forces on the battlefield. The Pasdaran was designed as an organization that would be directly subordinate to the ruling clerics. The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran entrusted the regular army with guarding Iran's territorial integrity and political independence. Thus the Revolutionary Guards could only have the responsibility of guarding the revolution. Involvement in politics is a part of the Revolutionary Guards' mission to defend Islamic authority. Despite differences, the Pasdaran and the regular armed forces have cooperated on military matters.

By the end of the war between Iran and Iraq in 1986, the Pasdaran consisted of 400,000 personnel organized in battalion-size units that operated either independently or with units of the regular armed forces. In 1984 the Pasdaran acquired a small navy and elements of an air force. Until 1988, up to three million volunteers were organized under the control of the Revolutionary Guards as the Mobilization (Basij) Corps. Since the end of the war this number has decreased, as those units are used to control the internal situation or to strengthen one political faction above another and battle to quell civil disorder. The Basij allegedly also monitor the activities of citizens, and harass or arrest women and men who violate the dress code.

The Pasdaran have maintained an intelligence branch to monitor the regime's domestic adversaries and to participate in their arrests and trials. Khomeini demonstrated his acceptance of the Revolutionary Guards' involvement in intelligence when he congratulated them on the arrest of Iranian Communist (Tudeh) leaders. Not only did the Pasardan function as an intelligence organization, both within and outside the country, but they also exerted considerable influence on government policies.

The Pasdaran have been quite active in Lebanon. By the summer of 1982, shortly after the second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Pasdaran had nearly one thousand personnel deployed in the predominantly Shi˓ite Biqa˓ Valley. From their headquarters near Baalbek, the Pasdaran have provided consistent support to Islamic Amal, a breakaway faction of the mainstream Amal organization, and then Hizb Allah, which contemplate the establishment of an Islamic state in Lebanon.