Iran: The IRGC & the Green Movement

Writing at RFE/RL, Golnaz Esfandiari reports that General Mohammad Ali Jafar, commander of the IRGC, has made public the fact that some members of the IRGC are in fact supporters of the opposition movement. However, Jafar said that it is better to convince these members of their wrongful stance rather than “physically deal with them and eliminate them.” Nevertheless, many questions remained to be answered regarding the implications of this phenomenon. Meanwhile, in his blog, Scott Lucas describes the assessment of the Green Movement offered by Ayatollah Mohajerani, former Minister of Culture under the Khatami administration, which claims that three groups exist within the movement:

A) Revolutionary: Those who are against the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Imam Khomeini, and Islam. They want to overthrow the Islamic Republic and have been of this opinion for 30 years.

B) Revolutionary-Reformist: Those who want to change the Constitution and remove velayat-e faghih (ultimate clerical supremacy).

C) Reformist: Those who want to implement parts of the Constitution that have not been implemented, bringing out its full potential and following up on the post-election protest of “Where is My Vote?”. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, Mohammad Khatami, and most of the political prisoners fall into this category.

While applauding Mohajerani for his stance against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Lucas questions some elements of his analysis, including Mohajerani’s first category (Revolutionary), remarking that “it sounds as if Mohajerani is saying that anyone who is against the revolution and Khoemini is also against Islam.” He also emphasizes that the three groups are a testimony to “the opposition’s strength,” arguing that the movement “includes a range of people” encompassing both those who favor the Islamic Republic and those who oppose it.