Urgent: Iran leader appoints new head of Revolutionary Guards

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Sep. 01 – Iran’s Supreme Leader in a decree on Saturday appointed a new chief for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Sep. 01 – Iran’s Supreme Leader in a decree on Saturday appointed a new chief for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Brigadier General Mohammad-Ali (Aziz) Jaafari takes over from Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi who in a separate decree was appointed as Supreme Armed Forces Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces.

In a letter to General Jaafari, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that he expected him to make daily advancements in all aspects of the IRGC’s work.

He also upgraded Jaafari’s rank from Brigadier General to Major General.

General Safavi steps down as Commandant of the IRGC after ten years in that post.

In August 2005, Jaafari was put in charge of forming the “IRGC Centre for Strategy”.

The idea for the creation of the centre for strategy came from Khamenei himself, who regularly receives the top IRGC commanders and closely follows their activities. He had asked Safavi and his commanders to devise a new command structure and military strategy for the IRGC that would give the elite military force unlimited access to national resources and absolute priority over the regular army in case of a foreign military confrontation.

The centre was made to draw up the strategy and implement the necessary changes to ensure rapid and efficient transformation of the country’s civilian infrastructure and resources to military footing under the control of the IRGC.

The subsequent changes strengthened the radical military institution that now controls many of Iran’s key centres of power.

It was reported last month that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush was contemplating adding the IRGC to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations, the first case of a government-affiliated body ending up on the blacklist.

In September 2005, Jaafari was confirmed as the head of the Supreme National Security Council’s directorate for internal security.

The SNSC is in charge of the country’s nuclear negotiations with the West and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).