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Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi in an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya TV aired Monday said the regime in Tehran depends on creating international and domestic crises to safeguard its existence and continuation.

"The Authority considers that the continuation of its rule depends on creating crises ... it stirred a lot of problems inside universities and in various unions and within clergy as well," Karroubi told Al Arabiya TV.

“The current conditions are very tense and very difficult. It has never been like this during the last 30 years of the revolution,” he added.

Karroubi said when he and reformist leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and even Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezai decided to run for Iran's tenth presidential election on June 12, 2009, they did not expect vote rigging to take place and usher in an era of political turmoil.

Rezai was seen to be much closer to the regime than other candidates having served as former Commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from 1981 to 1997. The IRGC, and in particular its Qods (Jerusalem) Force, are tasked with liberating Jerusalem through Baghdad” in stark contrast to the country’s regular armed forces which are purely for defending the country against foreign attacks.