Activists accuse the Guards of playing a frontline role in the deadly crackdown on protests. The group is sanctioned as a terrorist entity by countries including Australia, Canada and the United States, and campaigners have long urged similar moves from the EU and UK.
Pakpour took over as Guards commander last year after his predecessor Hossein Salami was one of several key military figures killed in an Israeli strike during the 12-day war, losses which revealed Israel’s deep intelligence penetration of the Islamic republic.
Another senior military figure, General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi who leads the Iranian joint command headquarters, meanwhile warned that in the case of an attack by the United States, “all US interests, bases and centres of influence” would be “legitimate targets” for the Iranian armed forces.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi – in an eye-catching opinion piece published Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal – said Iran would not hold back if attacked but added it had “always been ready for real and serious negotiations”.
“NATIONAL KILL-SWITCH”
Giving their first official toll from the protests, Iranian authorities on Wednesday said 3,117 people were killed.
The statement from Iran’s foundation for martyrs and veterans sought to draw a distinction between “martyrs”, who it said were members of security forces or innocent bystanders, and what it described as “rioters” backed by the US.
Of its toll of 3,117, it said 2,427 people were martyrs.
However, rights groups say the heavy toll was caused by security forces firing directly on protesters and that the actual number of those killed could be far higher and even extend to over 20,000.
Efforts to confirm the scale of the toll have been hampered by the national internet shutdown, with monitor Netblocks saying it was now two weeks since the authorities reached for the “national kill-switch”.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said “the future for the Iranian people can only be in a regime change”, adding that “the Ayatollah regime is in quite a fragile situation”.