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 In the following interview with the commander of Iran's Army Ground Forces - BG Pourdastan - he doesn't offer any groundbreaking revelations when it comes to Iran's security policy, but he does offer a handful of noteworthy comments. First, he describes the existence of political-security red-lines "far from Iran's borders". This isn't a new trope in Tehran's lexicon, but is important in the continued recognition of the fundamentally trans-national nature of Iran's national-security. Whether it's Tehran's concerns in the Levant, or Moscow's desire for a glacis in eastern-Europe, or Washington's continued hegemony over the Caribbean Basin, national security is never just national. Second, he couches the rise of ISIS within the same historical processes that account for Tehran's interpretation of the post-Soviet political scene, and the resulting 'future war' framework that encompasses the so-called soft, semi-hard, and h

Index : Acronyms and Abbreviations Introduction  Headquarters Components Appendix : Personnel Structure and Commander IMINT Footnot es/Works Cited Acro n yms and Abbreviations : AB: Armored Brigade Army: Term of art that refers specifically to the ' Artesh' (aka. the regular-armed-forces). Distinct from 'Army' as a general reference either to a nat io n's ground forces, or armed forces in general BG: Brigadier General BG2: Brigadier General, 2nd -Class CB: Commando Brigade Col.: Colonel  HQ: Headquarters  IB: Infantry Brigade IRIA: Islamic Republic of Iran Army (AKA , Army Grou nd Forces, or NEZAJA )  IRIADF: Islamic Republic of Iran Air Defense Force ( AKA, Khat am ol-Anb i ya Headquarters ) IRIA F: Islamic Re public of Iran Air Force MIB: Mechanized Infantry Brigade      Introduction : The third part in this series covers the Army's Northeast Operations Headquarters, which is based in Mashhad, and borders Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan. The first part

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Index : Acronyms and Abbreviations Introduction and Overview Primary Garrison FFEP Deployment Footnotes and Works Cited Acronyms and Abbreviatons : AAA: Anti-Aircraft Artillery ADG: Air Defense Group BG2: Brigadier General, Second Class FFEP: Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant HM [ADG]: Hazrat Masumeh [Air Defense Group] IRIADF: Islamic Republic of Iran Air Defense Force; aka Khatem ol-Anbiya Air Defense HQ Lt. Col. : Lieutenant Colonel SAM: Surface-to-Air Missile UGF: Underground Facility Lt. Col. Abarshi Introduction and Overview : The IRIADF's Hazrat Masumeh Air Defense Group (HM ADG) was formed in 2009 to protect the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP). It's current commander is Lt. Col. Hossein Abarshi. [1] Based on it's location near Qom, the HM ADG should be subordinate to the Central Air Defense Region, under the command of BG2 Abazar Jookar. [2] Primary Garrison : The Group's primary garrison is located along the Qom-Tehran Freeway, in-between the the FFEP and the m

AFGS emblem (MrInfo2012) Acronyms and Abbreviations : AFGS: Armed Forces General Staff BG2: Brigadier General, 2nd-Class BG: Brigadier General CoS: Chief-of-Staff HQ: Headquarters IRGC: Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps LEF: Law Enforcement Forces MG: Major General MIA/KIA: Missing-in-action/killed-in-action SNSC: Supreme National Security Council  Background and Role : The Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS) was created in the summer of 1988, during the last days of the Iran-Iraq War, to coordinate and deconflict IRGC and Army activities by the creating a unified chain of command. [1] Just as importantly, this also helped integrate the IRGC into the formal security establishment, decreasing their institutional autonomy, and thus their ability to threaten the political balancing act during the critical transition of power that came with Khomeini's death. [2] Within the formal hierarchy, the AFGS is subordinate to the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), and controls the activit