The appointment of Rostam Qasemi as the new Iranian oil minister has touched off a flurry of reporting and analysis on the alleged expansion of the economic and political role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the country.
This line of reporting and analysis is not new and dates to at least the early 1990s. It increased in the wake of the disputed June 2009 presidential elections, which thrust the IRGC center-stage as the main force dealing with the riots and disorder at the street level.
The new oil minister is from impeccable IRGC stock, having joined the force in early 1981, only two years after its official founding in May 1979. Among the most talented and prolific of senior IRGC commanders, Qasemi is also a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and was wounded in battle.
Prior to taking control of the Oil Ministry, Qasemi was the head of the Khatam al-Anbia Construction Complex, the IRGC’s engineering outfit, and by far the biggest infrastructural contractor in Iran.
To IRGC critics, the ratification of Qasemi’s appointment by a resounding 216 votes in parliament (with only 22 deputies voting against and seven abstaining), signifies a major leap forward in the IRGC’s supposed quest to capture all the key political and economic posts in the country.
In response, the IRGC’s overall commander, Mohammad Ali Jaafari, maintained that the IRGC had only reluctantly “lent” Qasemi to the government owing t…
