{"id":4043,"date":"2026-03-08T19:17:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/?p=4043"},"modified":"2026-03-08T19:45:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:45:50","slug":"what-is-the-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-or-the-irgc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/what-is-the-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-or-the-irgc\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or the IRGC?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Thomas, Lecturer in Middle East Studies, Deakin University<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n

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With news Iran orchestrated two antisemitic attacks<\/a> in Australia last year, the federal government has declared the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation\u2019s Director-General Mike Burgess said the group, known as IRGC, \u201cused a complex web of proxies to hide its involvement\u201d in the attacks on Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney and the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

The IRGC has a long history in the Middle East as an extremely powerful armed force, both militarily and politically.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where it came from, how it operates and what it means for Australia.<\/p>\n

What is the IRGC and where did it come from?<\/h2>\n

The IRGC was created after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, in which the Western-backed Shah of Iran was deposed by followers of Shia Islamic cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini \u2013 the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.<\/p>\n

The organisation was originally created as a force to protect the revolution, both within Iran and internationally. It\u2019s legislated in the Iranian constitution<\/a>, which says:<\/p>\n

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The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, organised in the early days of the triumph of the Revolution, is to be maintained so that it may continue in its role of guarding the Revolution and its achievements.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Iran has an army, which is bigger than the IRGC, and reports directly to ministers and government in the same way the Australian Defence Force does.<\/p>\n

The IRGC, on the other hand, was created alongside the army but instead reports directly to Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader and other high-level clerics. It proactively defends Iran\u2019s interests, in what scholars call a forward-defence strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Given it\u2019s so closely connected to the most powerful people, the corps has a lot of political influence, even more than the army. The IRGC is occasionally at loggerheads<\/a> with the clerical elite, which undermines the power it has to go up against the people it directly reports to.<\/p>\n

The IRGC Aerospace force<\/a> has control over much of Iran\u2019s extensive ballistic and cruise missile arsenal, many of which were deployed against Israel earlier in the year. <\/p>\n

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