Commander of the IRGC's Term Extended for Another Three Years; Commander of Tehran's IRGC Changed

The commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who has held this position for 10 years, has been reappointed by the Supreme Leader of Iran for another three years, while the commander of the Mohammad Rasulullah Corps has been changed. According to Young Journalists Club, Mohammad Ali Jafari announced on Tuesday, July 2, during the ceremony for the introduction and farewell of the commander of the Mohammad Rasulullah Corps of Greater Tehran, that his command has been extended for another three years. Mohammad Ali Jafari was appointed to this position on September 3, 2007, by a ten-year decree from Ayatollah Khamenei. Among Jafari's previous responsibilities are commanding the Western and Southern Operations Headquarters, commanding the Ashura Brigade, commanding the Quds Headquarters, commanding the Najaf Headquarters, and serving as the operations deputy of the Susa Corps. He has also held the position of operations deputy of the General Staff of the IRGC and served as the deputy commander of the IRGC Ground Forces before becoming the commander of the IRGC Ground Forces. In the ceremony on Tuesday, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Yazdi was introduced as the new commander of the Mohammad Rasulullah Corps of Greater Tehran, succeeding Brigadier General Mohsen Kazemini. The Mohammad Rasulullah Corps is responsible for the activities and coordination of the Basij and IRGC forces in Tehran. This force was formed in 2008 following the restructuring of the IRGC and the establishment of provincial corps from the merger of the 27th Mohammad Rasulullah Division and the Tehran Province IRGC. Prior to his appointment as commander of Greater Tehran, Mohammad Reza Yazdi held the position of legal and parliamentary deputy of the IRGC. He was introduced as the commander of the Ammar Yasser Battalion at the end of 1983 and remained in this position until the end of the war. Mohsen Kazemini, who handed over his position to Yazdi on Tuesday, had been removed from the deputy command of the Tharallah Headquarters just three days prior by the order of the IRGC commander. His successor in this headquarters is former parliament member Ismail Kowsari, who was appointed on July 1. The Tharallah Headquarters is responsible for ensuring security in Tehran Province, and its commander is the commander of the IRGC. The changes in the high command of the IRGC in Tehran and the province come a month after attacks carried out by the group known as the Islamic State (ISIS) in the parliament and at the tomb of Ayatollah Khomeini in mid-June. Two weeks after these attacks, Mojtaba Lavasani, the commander of the Ansar al-Mahdi Protection Corps, was dismissed. This force is one of the sections of the IRGC responsible for protecting officials and sensitive locations of the Islamic Republic, including the parliament. The IRGC announced on June 18 that in response to the attacks by the Islamic State group in Tehran, it targeted one of the group's bases in the Deir ez-Zor region of eastern Syria with medium-range surface-to-surface missiles. However, it seems that senior IRGC officials did not consider this operation sufficient and deemed further changes in the senior ranks of this military institution necessary. In the June 17 attacks in Tehran, 17 people were killed and over 50 were injured.