Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei warns of enemies' plot to tarnish image of IRGC

 Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei warns of enemies’ attempts to tarnish the image of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and Basij volunteer forces. "One of the main parts of the enemy’s activities is to tarnish the image of the IRGC and that of Basij [volunteer forces]. Why is that? Because the IRGC is awe-inspiring, Basij is impressive, which makes them (enemies) worried and anxious," the Leader stated. The Leader made the remarks in a meeting with the Supreme Assembly of Commanders of the IRGC in Tehran on Thursday.

The last meeting between Ayatollah Khamenei and senior IRGC commanders was held some four years ago with the presence of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top anti-terror general who was martyred by the United States a few months after the meeting. Enemies have no avenue to tarnish the reputation of the IRGC other than through "false news, rumors and all kinds of tricks and ploys,” the Leader added, praising the IRGC elite force as “the world’s biggest anti-terrorism organization." “It is a well-equipped military organization. It is an efficient and independent organization capable of carrying out tasks that many of the world's major militaries cannot accomplish,” Ayatollah Khamenei added. The Leader further expounded on how the IRGC stood apart from other forces that emerged in the early stages of big revolutions such as the French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

Those forces often exhibited destructive tendencies, disorderliness, and a lack of discipline, whereas the IRGC was structured “under the central authority” of the Islamic Revolution from the beginning, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed out. In his remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to a summit attended by senior officials of the US, Britain, France and Germany in the French island of Guadeloupe on the threshold of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, and said they concluded that it was "impossible" to save the puppet regime in Iran, referring to the US-backed Pahlavi regime. However, they resorted to the strategy of "consecutive crises" in the hope that they would be able to overthrow every new government in Iran, the Leader said, reminding how Iran faced several crises, riots, acts of insecurity and extensive terror activities at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution.

The Leader stated that the documents captured from the former US embassy in Iran, known as the “Den of Espionage,” also exposed that such incidents took place in line with the very strategy of the West creating consecutive crises in Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei lauded the IRGC, saying the great efforts by the elite force foiled all those crises and saved the Iranian people from them. The Leader said the enemies plotted to defeat and undermine the Islamic Revolution by creating continuous crises and then completely destroy it via a move similar to the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup. However, the IRGC thwarted the coup plot in Iran and this is the reason behind the “enemies' grudge” against the elite force, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed out.