The head of Iran’s Basij militia, Mohammadreza Naghdi, has condemned recent attacks against the Revolutionary Guards, saying those who insult the Corps are “mercenaries and the scum of political hypocrisy.”
In a recent statement, senior reformist figure Mohammadreza Khatami said the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has been interfering in political matters. Khatami accused Commander Jaffari of speaking as if the Islamic Republic were under a coup d’état.
IRGC Commander Jaffari recently announced that only those reformists who had not “crossed the red lines” could participate in the upcoming elections. He added that former president Mohammad Khatami would likely not qualify because he is too close to opposition leaders MirHosien Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who are currently under house arrest.
Naghdi referred to Mohammadreza Khatami without directly naming him, saying:: “Do you expect such mercenaries to praise the Revolutionary Guards? … these people are aliens who are bound to speak against the guards and attack other sacred organs of the Islamic regime.”
He stressed that the Islamic Republic has been too lenient with these individuals, adding: “Such characters are no longer prominent in this country. The people have seen through these mercenaries; they are the scum of political hypocrisy, and the people have already pushed them aside and will never allow them back into the arena.”
The reformists accuse the Revolutionary Guards of interfering in the elections, which is illegal under Iran’s constitution.
