Maroc - EURASIAREVIEW.COM - A la une - 08/Feb 00:21

‘One Command, One Strategy’: Iran Reopens Debate On Army-IRGC Merger

By Osama Ali (Albawaba) -- An Iranian newspaper has started a new conversation about how to reorganize the country's armed forces. They want the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iran's regular army to be merged to deal with growing security, economic, and regional problems. According to a study released on Saturday, Jomhouri-ye Eslami said that growing threats from outside Iran and worsening economic conditions inside the country have shown that the country's security system has structural weaknesses. The paper made the point that institutional stability is no longer a long-term goal but a strategic necessity, especially in the military. The report asked if Iran's dual military system is still in line with its national security goals, pointing out that roles that overlap and broken command chains are becoming more expensive and ineffective. The newspaper used the memoirs of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to talk about talks he had with the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 about how hard it was to keep up two separate armed institutions. It is said that Khomeini wanted the two countries to eventually become one, but he thought the political situation at the time wasn't right. The story said that when the IRGC Ministry became part of the Ministry of Defense, Iran took a small step toward unification after the Iran-Iraq War. It also pointed out that Iran's police, gendarmerie, and revolutionary committees were successfully combined into a single internal security force. This was seen as proof that combining institutions can make management work better. Even with these examples, the report stated that combining the army and the IRGC is still a very touchy subject. In the end, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stopped the plan to unite the two troops and decided to keep them separate but working together. The newspaper, on the other hand, said that the military's subsequent expansion into the economic, political, and media sectors has made roles less clear and raised international scrutiny, which has led to sanctions and strains within the country. In the end of its analysis, Jomhouri-ye Eslami said that going back to the merger idea could help make government more efficient, boost national security, and ease the financial load on Iranian society during a time of high uncertainty.