ASSESSMENTS

Iran's Military Crackdown: Concession or Show?

Jan 23, 2018 | 17:27 GMT

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is clearly supporting President Hassan Rouhani's sidelining of the military for economic and political reasons.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is clearly supporting President Hassan Rouhani's sidelining of the military for economic and political reasons.

(BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has an outsize role in Iranian society, but now Tehran is urging its military to focus on defense.
  • Though rolling back the force's power will not be easy, it will be made more possible by the supreme leader's support.
  • Reining in the IRGC will make it more difficult for the European Union to heed U.S. calls to apply more pressure on Iran related to its nuclear program and other military activities.
 

As the United States threatens to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, Iran is ordering its entire military -- made up of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the regular army, Artesh -- to divest any economic activity unrelated to its core mandate. The move is a significant one, considering how entrenched the IRGC is in Iranian politics and the economy. But the jury is still out on whether a legitimate crackdown is underway or if it's all for show. There are domestic drivers that could be behind the crackdown and that should not be dismissed, but international drivers certainly have influenced Tehran's calculus. The United States is pressuring Iran economically and urging the European Union to do the same, in the form of a supplemental agreement that increases the scope of the Iran nuclear deal. If a supplemental agreement is not signed, Washington says it will pull out...

Keep Reading

Register to read three free articles

Proceed to sign up

Register Now

Already have an account?

Sign In