Those pulling the IRGC s chain are themselves committed to a revolutionary agenda, and doubtless want a nuclear weapon as badly as the Pasdaran commanders.

A bomb directed at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard recently exploded on Iran s border with Afghanistan.

The Revolutionary Guard leaders killed were buried two days later in a military funeral.

Bureaucratic and security services dominated by the Revolutionary Guards and its militia, the Basij (Mobilization Corps), are now firmly in command.

The infighting among conservatives and within the IRGC increased in the last few days before the election.

The leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blessed the Revolutionary Guards decision to steal the presidential election.

Despite his religious pretensions as a spiritual guide, Khamenei s future rests largely in the hands of the Revolutionary Guards.

The infighting among conservatives and within the IRGC increased in the last few days before the election. And, with Rowhani s surprising first round victory and Khamenei s refusal to endorse either candidate both IRGC factions lost.

To date, Iran s nuclear program and regional policies have been run by the IRGC and the country s hard liners.

Some have speculated that it was a matter of freelancing by the IRGC s command, or the navy, reacting to a local target of opportunity.

Increasingly reliant on the Revolutionary Guard as the bulwark of his regime, Khamenei has cut himself off from the possibility of compromise.

Our Iranian problem is actually a problem with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, or in Persian Pasdaran) and allied institutions like the Basij militia.

According to the report, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards may have planned other attacks on Israeli targets around the world as well.

Rouhani seems to have halted the expansion of the IRGC s economic empire. The IRGC s commander, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, has publicly expressed his hostility to Rouhani s administration, while General Hassan Firouzabadi, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, has countered by expressing his support for the president.

The IRGC may have wanted some bargaining chips to help spring of its members captured in Iraq.

In particular, there is strong evidence that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) split into two major factions, with one supporting Jalili and the other backing Qalibaf.

When the government tried to privatize the TCI, the Revolutionary Guards bought about 50 of the shares of the TCI through one of their affiliated companies.

Interestingly, he is urging European banks to invest in Iran, making the ludicrous claim that this would undermine the Revolutionary Guard, which by some estimates controls up to half of Iran s economy.

Had either Jalili or Qalibaf been elected, the tension within the IRGC might have worsened, becoming difficult for Khamenei to control.

Perhaps one of the most significant elements in Iran s stagnation is that the Revolutionary Guards control a large portion of the economy, and are beyond the reach of government regulation.

Economic sanctions and political isolation have, of course, deeply hurt the regime, especially the Revolutionary Guards, whose leaders and industries have been directly targeted by the international community.

It would also designate Iran s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group and impose further limits on exports to the country s civil aviation industry.

Soheil Arabi was sentenced to death for insulting the Prophet Mohammad on the Facebook.The Revolutionary Guards arrested Soheil Arabi on November 2013.

The attack killed at least 43 people including several notable Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (IRGC, or Revolutionary Guards) commanders, and injured a further 150.

And, with Rowhani s surprising first round victory and Khamenei s refusal to endorse either candidate both IRGC factions lost.

Relations between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei continue to deteriorate, while tensions are growing within the Revolutionary Guard.

To date, Iran s nuclear program and regional policies have been run by the IRGC and the country s hard liners.

Most worrisome of all, he is close to the two main groups that represent the most extreme elements in Iran the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij organization.

The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (Revolutionary Guards) has appreciated the death penalty for Saeed Malekpour, a web developer accused of running porn websites.

Yet many of his first appointments were rewards to his supporters and cronies in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij militia, armed groups that mobilized voters on his behalf during the campaign.

For example, Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, a branch of the IRGC, endorsed Qalibaf, who he hoped would receive Khamenei s full support.

While opposition to his rule among top clerics in Qom worries Khamenei, opposition within the Revolutionary Guard could be fatal for him.

Such measures include assisting the Green Movement so that it can maintain access to the Internet, introducing additional sanctions aimed at the Revolutionary Guard, and publicly supporting the political and legal rights of the Iranian people.

Iran s backward economy, a third of which is controlled by the Revolutionary Guard, is simply incapable of offering job opportunities to Iran s growing cohorts of university graduates the same segment of society that toppled the Shah.

Even Ayatollah Khamenei, who as Supreme Leader is also commander in chief of the armed forces, has taken steps to demonstrate his authority, recently firing the leaders of the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij militia.

Additionally, the Revolutionary Guards, who are involved in the operation of the countries central telco authority, remain under economic sanctions by the US government for activities associated with terrorism and human rights abuses.

When France's telco Orange SA entered the Iranian market in September, the company released a statement acknowledging their efforts to avoid working with the Guards and violating sanctions in this system

Economic sanctions and political isolation have, of course, deeply hurt the regime, especially the Revolutionary Guards, whose leaders and industries have been directly targeted by the international community. But these are not the only factors.

Instead, they have pursued a gradualist approach that aims to co opt and recruit disaffected members of the traditional classes, including clergy and Revolutionary Guardsmen, to the Green Movement.

A high ranking revolutionary guard, Sajadi, entered the British embassy and such an act could be considered a war declaration, because the embassy is considered British soil. Such an act is in contradiction with Iran's constitution.

The Revolutionary Guards are a branch of Iran's armed forces that is often involved in intelligence, surveillance and repression of dissidence, journalists and other elements they deem a threat to Iran's Islamic Revolution .

If domestic tensions, above all within Iran s restive middle class, ease as a result, the government will receive the credit, while the Iranian Republican Guard and other hardliners will be weakened.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard have uniforms bearing a Koranic verse that reads, Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to terrify thereby the enemy of God and your enemy, and others besides them that you know not God knows them.

Today it is a large and sprawling enterprise, that controls its own intelligence agency, manufacturing base, and import export companies, much like the Russian FSB or the Chinese military.

It is widely believed that the president would like to reduce the clergy s influence and increase the power of the Revolutionary Guards, his main source of institutional support.