Former IRGC commander on restructuring campaign

OSC has translated an article by a former IRGC provincial commander on the organization's current restructuring effort.

The retired commander, Mohammad Nabi-Rudaki, offers some interesting background information on the recent changes and the roots of the new provincial commands. He also mentions that these changes were resisted by former chief IRGC commander, Yahya Rahim Safavi, and hints they were behind his dismissal. (Safavi, of course, was replaced by Commander Jafari, who has spearheaded these changes.)

Former commander speaks of Iran paramilitary reforms
E'temad-e Melli (Internet Version-WWW)
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 T13:37:04Z
Journal Code: 9341 Language: ENGLISH Record Type: FULLTEXT
Document Type: OSC Translated Text
Word Count: 956

C:

Text of commentary by Mohammad Nabi-Rudaki headlined: An increase in Basij missions published by Iranian newspaper E'temad-e Melli on 7 July

The history and the philosophy behind the recent plan for the establishment of 31 provincial Guards and the merger of Basij command ranks with the Guards Corps' ground forces goes back to the experiences of the eight year holy defense. A change in the overall command of the Guards Corps is one of the main causes of reverting back to the former structure. When Gen Ja'fari was commander of the ground forces, he believed that this merger should take place but the opinion of the Chief Commander of the Guards Corps was other than this. Now that he has become Chief Commander of the Guards Corps, this proposal was put forward and the plan to establish 31 provincial Guards was approved by the Honourable Leader of all the Forces (Khamene'i) and the implementation operations were started.

During the holy defence period, Basij was present within the Guards' divisions and brigades and Guards' divisions became ready for defence and the carrying out of operations as a result of the Basijis' presence. After holy defence, a command was set up for the Basij unit and the ground forces of the country's Guards were established in the provinces. In this structure, the Basij command for every province was supervised by the commander of the division and the commander of the province's ground force; in such a way that I myself, was the commander of Fars Guards Corps between the years 1368 to the middle of 1371 (1989 to 1992) and commander of the Fajr 19 division.

At that time, Basij was under the control of the Guards commander and the province's other division was also managed under the command of the Guards commander. After the year 1373 (1994), once again there were changes in the Guards and the establishment of the Basij Resistance Force caused the Guards to become separated and for the Basij Resistance Force and the ground force to continue with their missions in the provinces alongside one another.

During the past weeks, according to the viewpoint of the Guards' Chief Commander, the outlooks of the years 1368 and 1373 (1989 and 1994) concerning a merger of the Basij Resistance Force and the Guards have once again taken form. The new structure will have a great impact on the fighting ability of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and will cause the enemies to lessen their greed towards the country.

Under the new structure, Basij forces are trained in Basij and are then placed under the control of the ground forces so that they can be organized. Taking into account the fact that at present, there are more than 3000 Basij resistance bases in the country and if these bases have on average of 300 active Basij members each, there are almost 12 m Basij forces in the country and a country that has 12 m Basij forces will possess extraordinary ability. On the other hand, these forces will obtain the necessary training and fighting ability in the bases. Under the new structure, the connection between the Resistance bases and the units of the Guards' ground forces will increase in every city and province and these forces will be supported by the Guards' ground forces. On the other hand, under the new structure, the Basij bases will use the facilities of the ground forces' battalions and will enjoy the direct trainings and organizations of the ground forces.

Consequently, under this structure, the facilities of the Basij bases increase in practice and this can be one of the philosophies of merging the resistance force and the ground force. On the other hand, under this structure, by implementing command on the level of battalions and maybe even companies, the ground forces can manage the Basij bases and organize the Basijis into companies. The Basij resistance force will give the necessary training to its own forces on two levels as before.

The new structure of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps will have no effect on Basij missions and will not result in a reduction of Basij missions. One of the missions of Basij Forces which is Construction Basij, in addition to its proper measures also has suitable programmes for the leisure time of Basij forces and young people in summer and it will continue with its activities under the new structure. On the other hand, the student Basij organization will also carry on with its activities alongside this organization and other Basij organizations that exist in universities and other groups will continue with their work under the supervision of the commander of the Guards ground force so that there is no gap between Basij companies and the Guards ground force. In this way, a merger will stimulate the forces more and in the future, not only Basij activity will not be reduced, its missions in outside sectors will in fact grow and expand; for example in the culture centres of mosques and other cultural sectors, Basij will continue with its active presence.

(The author was) commander during the holy defence period, former commander of Fars Guards Corps and deputy head of seventh Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee.