Fear of a militarized Iran, as Guard gains ‘primacy’
WASHINGTON — The Revolutionary Guard Corps has “gained primacy” in Iran since the 2009 presidential election, fueling fears there that the country is becoming militarized, a Pentagon-sponsored study said Tuesday.
The study by the RAND Corporation also urged US policymakers to take “great care” in their statements regarding Iran in order not to give the leadership a pretext to divert attention from domestic troubles, like the economy.
The disputed election was “a watershed event” in the Islamic republic’s history “that has altered elite relationships and solidified the position of the Islamist right and the Revolutionary Guards in Iranian politics,” it said.
In the decade after the 1979 revolution, the clerics had the most power, but in the 1990s, new patronage networks not accountable to the state dominated the economy, even if the clerics kept “considerable political influence,” it said.
“During the past decade, however, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has gained primacy, using the increased I