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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
The first operations commander of the Pasdaran was Abbas Zamani
(Abu Sharif), a former teacher from Tehran. A graduate of the
College of Education (Islamic Law Section), Zamani was one of the
founders of Hizballah in 1971. As early as 1970, when he first
traveled to Beirut, he established contacts in Lebanon with the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and various guerrilla
groups there. Unverified reports have claimed that the Pasdaran has
received organizational and training assistance from the PLO, but
no Palestinians were known to have visited the Aliabad or other
Pasdaran training grounds. Khomeini and his supporters in Iran, as
well as many other Iranians, have continued to support the
Palestinians, however. For example, PLO leader Yasir Arafat was one
of the first world leaders to visit Tehran after the Revolution; he
opened a diplomatic mission in what formerly had been the Israeli
embassy.
The Pasdaran has been quite active in Lebanon. By the summer of
1982, shortly after the second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the
Pasdaran had nearly 1,000 personnel deployed in the predominantly
Shia Biqa Valley. From its headquarters near Baalbek, the Pasdaran
has provided consistent support to Islamic Amal, a breakaway
faction of the mainstream Amal organization that contemplated the
establishment of an Islamic state in Lebanon. The secular Baathist
Syrian regime has found the Pasdaran presence in Lebanon
alternately helpful and threatening. In 1987 the Pasdaran's alleged
involvement in anti-American terrorism in Lebanon remained
difficult to confirm.
By September 1980, the Pasdaran was capable of deploying forces
at the front. Initially, the forces were sent to conduct operations
against Kurdish rebels, but before long they were deployed
alongside regular armed forces units to conduct conventional
military operations. Despite differences, the Pasdaran and the
regular armed forces have cooperated on military matters.
The Pasdaran was also given the mandate of organizing a large
people's militia, the Basij, in 1980. In a 1985 Iranian News Agency
report, Hojjatoleslam Rahmani, head of the Basij forces of the
Pasdaran, was quoted as stating that there were close to 3 million
volunteers in the paramilitary force receiving training in some
11,000 centers. It is from Basij ranks that volunteers have been
drawn to launch "human wave" attacks against the Iraqis,
particularly around Basra. More recently, the Pasdaran, on
Khomeini's instructions, has initiated the training of women to
serve the Revolution.
Data as of December 1987
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