According to the Defense Reporter of the Fars News Agency, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the IRGC Chief Commander, who was speaking at the large assembly of Tehran’s Basijis held in the Shrine of Khomeini, stated that there has been an acceleration in the realization of the Iranian Revolution’s promises and he added that the Basij has played a decisive role in all fields, enduring all pressures wholeheartedly, which has resulted in victories for Iran.
He mentioned that after the [Iran-Iraq] war, the enemy didn’t let go of the revolution, putting pressure on the regime in economic, cultural and social fields with the help of domestic opponents and foreign enemies.
He stressed that the other decisive role of the Basij was in helping the Resistance front in the shape of ‘Defenders of the Shrine’ and that the Tehran IRGC is proud to have formed the first Fatehin [the victorious] Battalion for defending the shrines in Syria, adding that it is only in Tehran that there is Fatehin Battalion. And “most victories of the Resistance front were due to the Basij, and its experience has been conveyed to other countries as well”. Further “the Basij is the model for the resistance of the nations in the region like the Lebanese Hezbollah, hundreds of thousands of trained popular forces, and the great corps of the Popular Movement Forces (PMF) in Iraq. It has been the same in Yemen and other countries, and the Basij’s experience has been conveyed [to these groups]”.
He told the Basij that Khomeini’s order to form the global Basij has been realized; Jafari said, “Khomeini had said resistance cells had to be formed in Islamic countries. Today, armed resistance cells have been created in the countries of the region. Small circles of resistance have been shaped in other countries as well, and in the future, we will see their influence”. And “our war is ideological, and it doesn’t recognize any geographical borders. And we saw that in Syria, people from Muslim countries volunteered for confronting the enemies”. Further “wherever there was a big social crisis and problem, that crisis was resolved – even if it was the world war – if great popular forces were properly organized and present in the scene…………. the Syrian war is really a world war, and superpowers have a role in it. But it ended in defeating [the world’s] arrogance”.
