While the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the Basij militia under its command, and the law enforcement forces in the Islamic Republic of Iran have been facing deserters and dealing with psychological issues in the past two years because of the oppressive actions of these forces and their interference in the domestic politics of the country, the representative of the country’s leader ayatollah Khamenei in the IRGC force tagged the protestors who had questioned the 2009 election results to be “worthy of death” (mahdoor al-dam) and added that the Guards and the Basij should not have any “hesitations” in crushing them.
Speaking at a seminar titled “Basij and the Media,” ayatollah Khamenei’s representative cleric Ali Saeedi told the audience, which included senior IRGC and Basij commanders, that the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic had as much authority as the Muslim prophet Mohammad 14 centuries ago. “There is no difference in the authority that the missing Prophet and the current vali faghih (supreme religious authority) posses in running the country and therefore all the authority that the Prophet and the Imam enjoyed in the administration of the state then also exist for the current vali faghih,” he said.
