More on IRGC restructuring effort

OSC has translated an interview with Maj-Gen. Hejazi, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC, on Iranian provincial television. The interview casts more light on the goals of the IRGC's current restructuring campaign.

Iranian Commander on IRGC Provincial Branches Across Country
Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Khuzestan Provincial TV
Tuesday, July 1, 2008 T11:16:31Z
Journal Code: 9339 Language: ENGLISH Record Type: FULLTEXT
Document Type: OSC Translated Text
Word Count: 325

The deputy commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has talked about changes in the structure of the IRGC.

Today (30 June) in Esfahan, Commander Seyyed Mohammad Hejazi said that as per the proposal by the commander-in-chief of IRGC and the approval of the supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces (Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i) there will be 31 branches of the IRGC in the provinces of the country so that operations in each province will be carried out independently without reliance on the main centre (of IRGC).

(Hejazi) IRGC has had various units in the provinces such as ground forces, Basij Resistance Force, educational, support and experts units. Since all these units were dependent on the central office and the IRGC forces, it was not possible to exploit their capabilities in supporting each other.

Sometimes there were certain problems. To have unity and a single command, and to benefit from all the capabilities in operations, a comprehensive command has been allocated in each province to supervise them. For instance, for the IRGC's ground forces they required trained Basijis to develop their units.

Due to administrative and bureaucracy issues, sometimes we used to face problems. With the new structure administrative and official correspondence will be minimized and it will be possible to benefit from their capabilities. On the other hand, considering the possible threats against our country, each region and province's commands should be able to operated independently and defend their related areas. These commands will hopefully be able to fulfil [sic] their duties across each province with full authority and having support units and experts. These measures will hopefully create unity and a unity in command, and strengthening the capabilities across the provinces.

Iranian provincial television also reported that the new IRGC command for the Sistan-Baluchistan region is called the Salman Guards Corps. This unit will be based in the provincial capital Zahedan and will be commanded by Gen. Mohammadzadeh.