A senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) official implied that the notorious terrorist organization was preparing to crack down on future protests on orders of the regime’s Supreme Leader. In a meeting with the Supreme Leader’s representative in the northeastern province of South Khorasan, Gholamhossein Gheib Parvar, the Deputy Commander of the Imam Ali Security Base, said the IRGC would engage in security matters more than before.
“The Supreme Leader said he wanted security from the IRGC, therefore, currently the IRGC has engaged in various security issues more diligently than before,” he said in remarks published by the state-run Fars News Agency on February 15.
He also implied that the IRGC would prepare to deal with future protests.
“The enemy uses every opportunity to disrupt the internal situation of the country, so we must be ready for this,” he stressed.
The Imam Ali Security Base is tasked with commanding and distributing IRGC “Battalions” around Iran. These battalions are used as special forces to crack down on protests. The Imam Ali Battalions were established in 2011 after other IRGC battalions successfully curbed major protests in 2009.
In a 2019 speech following widespread protests across Iran, Gheib Parvar called protesters “rioters and terrorists”.
“The rioters of the November 2019 sedition were terrorists and today we have to chant death to the rioters who were definitely rioters and terrorists and have to be dealt with according to the law”, he said in his speech in the southwestern city of Shiraz, where he was previously the Chief of the IRGC.
The IRGC is responsible for the regime’s regional terrorist operations and suppressing dissent at home, especially through its paramilitary branch, the Basij. Iran’s security forces, namely the IRGC and the Basij carried out a brutal crackdown, killing at least 1,500 protesters and innocent bystanders including more than 20 children in the course of just a few days in November 2019. At least 12,000 protesters were arrested with several reports of deaths under torture. Reports indicate that the IRGC command gave its agents cold coins to thank them for the brutal crackdown.
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