Revolutionary Guards “Consult” Reformists

IranWire has learned that the Intelligence Corps of the Revolutionary Guards has summoned a number of reformists, including some who were arrested in the aftermath of the disputed 2009 presidential election. Intelligence agents have urged reformists to talk to them about recent nationwide protests, which took place in late December 2017 and early January 2018. Some of the reformists have been asked to speak in groups, while others have been summoned individually. Alll of them were summoned in Tehran.

According to one reformist, the discussions he contributed to were conducted in what he described as a “friendly” manner, but he said some individuals were also threatened. IranWire's source, who has asked to remain anonymous, said that some of the intelligence agents present had been interrogators in charge of questioning reformists in 2009. He said a number of academics with links to the Revolutionary Guards accompanied the Guards and their “experts” during the discussions. He also told IranWire that intelligence agents told the individuals being questioned that the recent protests had pushed different political factions in the Islamic Republic closer together. However, he said, the Guards agents “continued to refer to 2009 events as ‘Sedition.’”

He told IranWire: “The Guards were adamant that the main instigators of recent protests were counter-revolutionary media that took advantage of people’s economic problems.”

In these meetings, he said, the Guards gave ample time for those being questioned to expound their views. He noted that some agents took notes in the manner of reporters.

The reformist activist IranWire spoke with said that in 2009 there were cases where some prisoners developed friendly relations with their interrogators. “The head interrogator of the reformists was a person called ‘Majid’ who has kept in touch with former prisoners,” he said, and then added, “the Guards’ experts felt that they were in a superior position and emphasized that the regime was not joking. If the regime finds it appropriate, it will arrest them again.”

The source told IranWire: “Whenever in these meetings reformists criticized the Guards’ and the regime’s support for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and called the results of the [2009] election “made up”, intelligence agents responded by saying that the election had been fair, and the people and the regime had supported Ahmadinejad because Mir Hossein Mousavi had been obstinate in his refusal to follow the Supreme Leader’s orders.”

According to him, the intelligence agents told the reformists that they have launched an extensive investigation into the causes of the recent protests. The Guards claimed that “many of those who have been released in recent weeks are helping us in this investigation by doing field research.” IranWire and its sources are unable to confirm this claim.