IRGC encourages Basij mobilization amid 'US, Israel threats' to Quds Force

The threats reveal Tehran’s fears that the US will not stop targeting their key officials and that the US has put Iran on the back foot in its plans for the region.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
Hossein Salami, deputy head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard (photo credit: REUTERS/MORTEZA NIKOUBAZL)
Hossein Salami, deputy head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard
(photo credit: REUTERS/MORTEZA NIKOUBAZL)
The IRGC’s chief Maj.-Gen. Hossein Salami ordered the mobilization of Basij units as he claimed Israel and the US have threatened the new Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani.
“The Zionists and Americans know that if their commanders threaten us then none of their commanders will ever find a safe place either,” he said according to Iranian media. He claimed that the US and Israel had threatened to assassinate IRGC commanders and threatened retaliation as he also ordered Basij militia elements mobilized.
"The US assassination of Qasem Soleimani is part of the regimes of terror,” he said, claiming that the US and Israel resort to assassinations when their other policies to deny Iran “peaceful nuclear technology” had failed. His speech was quoted at length by Tasnim media in Tehran.
His speech appears to come in reaction to US special envoy for Iran Brian Hook allegedly threatening the new IRGC Quds Force commander.
The threats reveal Tehran’s fears that the US will not stop targeting their key officials and that the US has put Iran on the back foot in its plans for the region. Iran is now lashing out with threats, a usual regime response, because it does not yet have a serious ground response. In Baghdad, Iranian-backed militias were likely behind rockets that struck the US embassy compound on Sunday. The Iranian-backed groups rushed to say they had not fired the rockets, remembering that the last time their rockets killed an American the US launched airstrikes against five Kataib Hezbollah targets, killing dozen.
Salami also sought to beef up security at home by pushing the Basij militia to play a wider role in Iran and to mobilize against threats. The Basij is one of the arms of the IRGC, consisting of volunteers for a paramilitary unit that roughly translates as “mobilization,” similar to the “popular mobilization” units in Iraq or PMU that Iran backs. The organization plays a key role in Iran and in propping up the regime. It has also crushed dissent in the past. Now the regime, weakened by assassinations and under pressure economically, turns  to this pillar. The Iranian r regime killed 1,500 protesters in November. A Basij member in Khuzestan was gunned down earlier this month when leaving his house.
IRGC head Salami said that millions have turned out in Iran to commemorate Soleimani. He wants to ride that wave of memorialization to confront what he calls the “enemy’s strategies.” The most important task is “for the Basij and IRGC to solve problems,” which includes the problem of providing more services to people via 54,000 points across Iran. “We are announcing the Basij capacities across the country and the enemy is afraid of our mobilization efforts.” He says the Basij should dedicate themselves to defeating the enemy through serving the people and through martyrdom.


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