Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Sune Engel Rasmussen, The Wall Street Journal 6 min Read 20 Jun 2025, 06:57 AM Ist Israeli strikes target Iran’s Revolutionary Wait, which dares a shift in power to a more Hawkish Military Elite. (via Reuters) Summary dissolution or killing of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei can lead to a more radical, anti-Israeli Iran. Israeli strikes pointed directly to the backbone of the military force of his enemy: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. But the attacks also increase the chance of a change in leadership that will concentrate power in the hands of the elite military power, which may result in a more Hawkic and anti-Israeli Iran. Recent Israeli strikes have killed many staff of the senior guard, including the top commander and the architect of Iran’s Ballist-Missile program. The Revolutionary Guard reacted with daily rocket pigs about Tel Aviv, including military sites and a hospital, and warned the US not to get involved. The war got the worst blow to Iran in four decades and drove it in an existential danger. The highest leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s rule depends to a large extent on loyalty on the guard. In turn, he empowered the military force to the extent that it is likely to survive the highest leader. If Khamenei is overthrown or killed, the revolutionary guard would probably enter and dictate a new ruler – and thus take unprecedented power. “The balance of power within Iran after the aftermath of this will move towards the army in the direction of the guard,” says Ray Takeyh, an Iran expert and senior fellow with the foreign relations Council. “Those in charge will be the men with guns. And they will try to bring back some kind of clerical leadership, because it is an Islamic Republic. ” Since its founding in 1979, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, has been the most powerful branch of Iran’s armed forces and is separate from and more powerful than the national army. It has its own land forces, fleet, air force, intelligence and special powers, a total of about 125,000 staff members. It is also deeply embedded in Iran’s economic system, political affairs and social structure. The Islamic Republic is not a one -man rule, but a constellation of power centers that merge under the authority of the supreme leader. In a fragmented country, the revolutionary guard has over time emerged as the most powerful actor, partly because of an expansive economic empire. The US has tried to combat the influence of the guard by appointing a terrorist organization in 2019 and directing it with economic sanctions. In 2020, during the first Trump presidency, a US military strike Kassem Soleimani, the head of the Guard’s international QDD power and his most prominent commander, killed. The guard dominates all important infrastructure sectors, including oil and gas, construction and telecommunications. It trades in consumer goods and benefits parastatal charities that run hundreds of subsidiaries in everything from agriculture to tourism. Ali Alfoneh, an IRGC expert at the Arab Golf State Institute in Washington, DC, and author of a book on the guard, says’ millions of people depend on the economic empire of the revolutionary guard. In a sense, he said, the revolutionary guard of Iran is similar to the military in Egypt, which has dominated the state since 1952, or in Pakistan, where the armed forces have been controlling since 1947, including three major state grips. While the external operations of the guard were seriously obstructed by Israel’s military campaign, its dominance did not have at home. If the highest leader is overthrown and foreign enemies have tried to bring public unrest by bombing the country, enforcing a without fly zone and applying economic pressure-as they did against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the 1990s, she used a brutal power to maintain power. “IRGC as an organization is able to fight a civil war and rule in a civil war, against an opposition [potentially] Financed and armed by Israel and the US, “he said. While personalities in the Revolutionary Guard matter, the commanders advise the Supreme Leader – the leadership is mostly collective and to some extent informal, consisting of current and retired officers of different factions. Despite the recent deaths of senior commanders, the Revolution remained with the Revolution. of the retelling retelling. Scouts. You do art and crafts and sing songs. If the IRGC is forced to console a new rule, the basic regime in the retention would change the revolutionary guard will not only bring about political change, but also bring about the social structure in parts of Iranian society, as is often the case in the regime changes, many economic structures and businesses are likely to survive, including the IRGC, said ESFANDYAR BATMANGHELIDJ, founder and CEO Bourse and Bazaar, an economic thinking. Bedding in state institutions and in economic entities, commercial entities, to some extent where I think there would be a lot of continuity, even if there was a major political transition, “Batmanshelidj said.” And this is something I rarely struggle with. “No matter the outcome of the present war with Israel, the Islamic Revolution is facing a historical discharge. To drag the country into a devastating war. In total, about 125,000 staff members in its own ranks have helped Iran to blame a local power station that they could not make a decisive blow to Iran.
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