Rebel elements within Iran’s most powerful armed forces attempted to attack the official residence of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with artillery, a leaked file reveals.
The file details a meeting held on January 3 between 58 commanders of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) and Khamenei himself.
During the meeting, several commanders expressed their frustration over the ongoing protests and warned Khamenei about the future of the Islamic Republic.
Iran has been swept by popular protests demanding fundamental economic, social and political changes in the country since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini on September 16.
The 22-year-old woman had been arrested for allegedly wearing a hijab inappropriately.
The file details a meeting held on January 3 between 58 commanders of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) and Khamenei himself (pictured).
During the meeting, several commanders expressed their frustration over the ongoing protests (pictured) and warned Khamenei about the future of the Islamic Republic.
The commanders confirmed that most of the forces under their command refused to confront the people and refused orders to fire on civilians (in the photo: a protest in Istanbul after the death of Mahsa Amini)
The commanders confirmed that most of the forces under their command refused to confront the people and had refused orders to fire on civilians.
The meeting also highlighted declining troop morale and an increase in conflicts among rank and file IRGC officers.
Khamenei’s representative within the IRGC, Abdullah Haji Sadeghi, told the meeting that the forces were not in the same situation as last year, particularly with regard to their morale.
Gholamali Rashidi, another commander who attended the meeting, warned that the Islamic Republic faces an even bigger challenge.
He described an incident in which an individual tried to attack the residence of the Supreme Leader with artillery at the height of the anti-establishment protests.
Rashidi praised the quick response of members of the unit who identified and “arrested the perpetrators.”
The leaked file gives a glimpse of the turmoil within Iran’s most powerful armed forces, with elements refusing to confront their own people and expressing frustration with the current state of affairs.
“According to our reports, it seems that the IRGC forces are not in the same situation as last year, particularly with regard to their morale, as there has been a decline,” Abdullah Haji Sadeghi, Khamenei’s representative within the IRGC, said in a statement. the meeting according to IranWire.
“We have collected information and statistics from various units throughout the divisions, which reveal the existence of conflicts (within the ranks),” he said.
‘This must be handled properly. It is important to point out that we are not talking about one or two individuals, but about an armed force made up of more than 600,000 troops,’ he warned the Supreme Leader and his commanders.
Iran has been swept by popular protests demanding fundamental economic, social and political changes in the country since the death in custody of Mahsa Amini (pictured) on 16 September. The 22-year-old woman had been arrested for allegedly wearing a hijab inappropriately.
The leaked file provides insight into the turmoil within Iran’s most powerful armed forces, with elements refusing to confront their own people and expressing their frustration with the current state of affairs (Pictured: People burning a national flag Iranian during a demonstration after the death of Mahsa Amini)
The commanders also discussed widespread corruption and misconduct among the superior armed forces, which is believed to have contributed to worsening disagreements and criticism among the personnel of these units.
During the meeting, the deputy commander of the IRGC forces in Alborz, Ehsan Khorshidi, warned his colleagues about the frustration among his troops.
“Recently, we have witnessed cases of disruption and assistance by the armed forces to civilians,” he said.
He added that a week before the meeting, a group of conscripts and a lieutenant from Alborz’s units had stolen from a military storage facility.
But “after the investigation, the security forces concluded that there was no theft and that the agents responsible for the transfer (of items) had distributed everything among the disadvantaged neighborhoods of Karaj,” Khorshidi added.
The Revolutionary Guard was established in parallel with the existing Iranian armed forces to consolidate power under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Today, the group is estimated to have between 125,000 and 150,000 members, but it is not known how many of those members are part of the Quds Force, an elite branch of the IRGC responsible for overseas operations.
The group, which is enshrined in the constitution, answers only to Iran’s supreme leader.
The IRGC oversees the country’s ballistic missile program and has conducted several tests since the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
In 2019, the United States included the IRGC on its “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” list.
This designation was part of the “maximum pressure” campaign that then-President Donald Trump imposed on Iran after withdrawing the United States from the nuclear deal, which had limited Iran’s nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief.
