What you need to know
The IRGC or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is the military and political arm of the ‘Islamic Revolution’ both within Iran and globally.
It arms, trains, and funds terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and is officially designated as a terrorist organisation by several Middle Eastern and western countries, including the United States and Canada, but not by Australia.
The Australian government announced on 26 August 2025 that it will introduce legislation to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.
Essential to know
What the “I” in “IRGC” stands for
Many Australians mistakenly believe “IRGC” stands for the “Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps” but in fact it stands for the “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Foreign Ministry also refers to it as the “Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution”.
Why the “I” matters
The distinction is important because the IRGC is not, and does not see itself as, a national instrument of the Iranian state, but rather as a supranational instrument of the ‘Islamic revolution’. The IRGC’s purpose is to entrench the Ayatollah’s theocratic rule in Iran and export Islamic revolution regionally and globally.
How the IRGC operates
Headquartered in Iran as the first territorial ‘achievement’ of the ‘Islamic Revolution’, the IRGC has its own ground forces, navy, air force, and special forces, all parallel to Iran’s conventional military.
Given the importance of Iran and the fierce resistance of Iranian people against the rule of the Ayatollahs, much of IRGC’s military and intelligence operations are focused on protecting the ‘Islamic Revolution’ and the Islamic Republic. The IRGC also controls a vast economic and cultural conglomerate, the reach of many parts of which – such as universities, media – span globally.
The IRGC’s terrorist proxies
One of the IRGC’s 5 armed branches, the Quds Force, is responsible for operations outside Iran and supports terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthi movement, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
It has led and carried out terrorist attacks, drug trafficking, currency counterfeiting, cyberattacks, and other criminal activities – not just in the Middle East, but in countries as far afield as Argentina, the USA, several European countries, Thailand, and Australia.
The US government has flagged the IRGC-linked Al-Mustafa University as a recruitment ground for the IRGC’s Quds Force.
The IRGC’s goal
The goal of the IRGC is regional and ultimately world domination for the “Islamic Revolution” in the form of a global theocracy (caliphate) with final authority vested in the ‘Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution’, currently Ali Khamenei. If the IRGC acquired nuclear arms, it would not be for the purposes of the Iranian nation, and certainly not for defensive purposes.
Questions and answers
Is the IRGC a terrorist organisation?
Currently, the IRGC is designated as a terrorist organisation by Bahrain, Canada, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and the United States, but not in Australia. A Senate inquiry in 2023 recommended “that the Australian Government take the necessary steps to formally categorise the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as an organisation involved in supporting and facilitating terrorism”.
Isn’t the IRGC just Iran’s regular military?
No. The IRGC is separate from Iran’s military, known as the Army or “Artesh”. It was created specifically to protect the ‘Islamic Revolution’, not protect the country, and to export the ‘Islamic Revolution’ globally. Unlike Iran’s Army (Artesh), its membership does not require Iranian citizenship. It does not have any reference to Iran in its name or logo, and its commanders have repeatedly and consistently stressed that “the IRGC is not about Iran”.
