This is one of the only sources of hope for the downfall of the Islamic regime in Iran: that the security forces will grow tired of firing upon their own sisters and brothers and friends, and lay down their arms. We can only hope that this “doubt and confusion” are a prelude to that.
“Hijab protests sow doubt and confusion among Iran’s revolutionary guards,” by Melanie Swan, The Times, February 10, 2023:
Forces in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are beginning to feel “doubt and confusion” after almost five months of anti-regime demonstrations, senior officers have admitted.
Compounding this sense of frustration is their pay. The salaries of IRGC soldiers are a quarter of their counterparts in Lebanon’s Hezbollah forces, Iran’s most powerful Middle East proxy, according to sources.
The 125,000-strong IRGC has carried out a brutal crackdown against protesters across the country, killing at least 528 civilians and imprisoning tens of thousands more, rights groups say. Seventy IRGC soldiers are believed to have died.
Leaked recordings have revealed that General Qassem Qureshi, deputy commander of the Basij paramilitary, told journalists that “a huge fraction of the revolutionary forces on the streets are experiencing doubt and confusion”. The Basij paramilitary is a religious militia within the IRGC that is often deployed against anti-government protests.
In the meeting in December, one of Qureshi’s colleagues said officers were “tired and very discontent particularly with the Sistan situation”. More than 80 Sunni worshippers were killed in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan, in southeastern Iran, after IRGC soldiers opened fire on a group of protesters shortly after Friday prayers.
In documents seen by The Times, IRGC soldiers receive on average $300 a month, earning about half the salary of a computer programmer in Iran and less than a schoolteacher. By comparison, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, a Shia militia group bankrolled by Tehran and designated a terrorist group by the West, soldiers can expect to earn about $1,300.
Iran’s currency has fallen by 30 per cent since the unrest began, adding to the problems of an economy already crippled by years of sanctions. Annual inflation is about 50 per cent.
“While Hezbollah militants get richer, the Iranian public is hitting rock bottom,” the source told The Times, asking not to be named for fear of reprisals. “It is a painful difference for the IRGC forces who have been on the front line for all these months. They feel undervalued and underpaid.”
Hamid Abazari, a second brigadier general and adviser to the IRGC commander Hossein Salami, has berated senior officers for “falling short” in dealing with the revolution. In a speech last month, he said many in the IRGC’s top ranks had “failed [to stand by] the values of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the regime”. The regime quickly tried to distance itself, claiming that his remarks were merely “personal opinions”….
“Nobody knows where all this proxy funding such as Hezbollah comes from, the weapons research, the money going to Iraq and Syria,” Mardo Sorghum, an economic analyst, said. “It’s all hidden from the budget and in turn, the Iranian people.”
Walter Sieruk says
With this article it’s well worth reiterating that the ancient Greek Philosopher, Plato, did have a good valid point when he had written, “The measure of a man is what he does with power.”
When applying that wise statement to Joe Biden, his “measure” is more than lacking, it’s outright terrible.
For Pseudo “President” Joe Biden still wants to uphold that wicked Islamic regime of Iran and support its nuclear middle program.
wpm says
The trouble is Biden is an empty suit an empty bottle his handlers are moving this half dead puppet to do their services he is Obamas third term .It is all part of the plan for the world elites, the leaders of France ,Germany ,Canada England, most of South America ,and America,s leaders are all empty suits put into power by the NWG to bring down western world that is my belief. We on the edge of WW3 the elites are loving it ,it is the ticket to ending all personal freedom for our own” safety” and good.
James Lincoln says
wpm says,
“We on the edge of WW3”
We are likely already there – it just hasn’t reached the kinetic phase.
Still time to reverse the trajectory with the right leaders.
But, right now, the Western world does not have the right leaders…
Keith O says
I had said ages ago when the protest first started that “at some point the troops will get jacked off at shooting their own people”.
This is one of those cases where it really sux to be right.
John ..Smith says
The only hope the protesters have of toppling this evil regime is if the military take their side. That’s their only hope.
It happened in Romania in 1989 with toppling of Nicolae Ceausescu, nothing to say it cannot happen in Iran.
OLD GUY says
Let pray that the Iran military sides with the PEOPLE and human life.