The new commander of Iran’s Basij paramilitary security force is overhauling the organization to root out opponents of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei within the regime, expanding a network of grassroots informants to head off potential protests, Iranian opposition sources told MBN.
Faced with rising internal pressures stemming from Iran’s war with the United States, Hossein Taeb began reorganizing the Basij within weeks of returning as its commander.
The Basij is a paramilitary force with a broad popular base that operates under Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization. Its mission is to suppress protests and protect the Iranian regime.
Salah Abu Sharif Ahwazi, secretary-general of the London-based Ahwazi Democratic Popular Front, said Taeb’s return reflects the regime’s need for “a figure who has demonstrated a high capacity for repression and security control during crises.”
Taeb commanded the Basij during the suppression of the 2009 Green Movement – protests against the results of a presidential election that year – and later headed the IRGC’s intelligence organization for more than 13 years. He was reappointed to lead Basij as part of a series of moves made by Mojtaba Khamenei in August that returned hard-line Iranian figures to the top of the country’s military and security agencies.
Iranian activists who identified themselves as members of “popular resistance units” said Taeb instructed local commanders to deploy large numbers of its forces in markets, gas stations, near bakeries and hospitals, and inside universities, schools and government service offices, fearing protests could erupt at any of these locations.
MBN could not independently verify the information.
Iran’s economy is crashing because of damage from the war, U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian rial has lost 60% of its value, while food-price inflation reached 128% year-over-year and unemployment stood at 9.2%, raising concerns among Iranian authorities about civilian unrest.
The activists said the Basij has also begun using humanitarian food aid to attract larger numbers of volunteers, exploiting deteriorating living conditions and hunger among Iranians.
The sources said Taeb’s instructions also included expanding surveillance and monitoring of Iranians, particularly their social media accounts, to carry out preemptive operations aimed at suppressing any popular attempts to stage protests or launch uprisings in cities against the regime.
Iranian opposition activists told MBN that the new Basij commander, coordinating with the IRGC intelligence service, has begun reviewing the records of local commanders and officers. The review is intended to determine their roles in confronting the popular protests that swept Iran last January, punish those who did not participate in suppressing protesters, and identify commanders sympathetic to the reformist movement.
Taeb’s name has been closely associated with the regime’s campaign to suppress opposition and protect Iran’s ruling political establishment. The United States imposed sanctions on him in September 2010 over his role in human rights abuses.
His return comes “at a stage when the regime feels an escalating internal threat from non-Persian peoples and is trying to fortify itself with its harshest security tools,” Ahwazi of the Ahwazi Democratic Popular Front said.
In a speech marking what is known in Iran as “Basij Day for Unions and Merchants” on Aug. 24, Taeb declared that “every Iranian is Basiji” according to an account published by Iranian media.
“By activating a popular network centered around the Basij, we can fulfill the wishes of the supreme leader,” he said in the speech.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s decision to appoint Taeb as Basij commander is “clear evidence of the deepening conflict within the ruling establishment, which has led Khamenei to rely on a figure close to him who belongs to the hard-line camp to purge his opponents within the regime and control its key institutions,” Jamil Ahmadi, an Iranian Kurdish opposition political activist living in Europe, said.
Taeb previously played intelligence roles on behalf of Iran’s hard-line faction. Among them was his work at the Ministry of Intelligence, where he carried out a plan to remove reformist leaders from within the government by surveilling them and using what he learned to undermine them politically.
He was also behind the arrest of the son of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a corruption case, prompting Rafsanjani to have Taeb removed from the Intelligence Ministry for a period.
Iranian opposition sources added that Taeb is working with his commanders to try to eliminate the security breaches that have affected Iran’s security apparatus over the past three years at the hands of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. Those breaches led to the deaths of most of the regime’s senior leaders, including former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Basij members are also monitoring the entry of international communications equipment, including equipment used to access the internet through satellites such as Starlink, according to opposition activists.
Jaafar Ziyara, a researcher specializing in Iranian political affairs, told MBN that Taeb’s return as the head of the Basij reflects the growing influence of security factions in shaping decision-making in Iran. It also signals an effort to build a more cohesive security network capable of dealing with potential unrest as the war with the U.S. drags on.
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
