In preparation for the celebration of “Sacred Defense Day” on Sept. 22 (the date Iraq invaded Iranian territory in 1980), Iranian leaders have been meeting the commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). On Sept. 16, President Rouhani gave a carefully worded speech that was designed not to antagonize the elite force, while pointing to a potential strategic shift.
Rouhani praised the IRGC’s economic activities, but at the same time, he urged the IRGC only to engage in large projects so that it does not compete with the private sector. Rouhani underlined this point: "Today, in conditions in which our economy is a target [of sanctions], the IRGC must enter into action and take on three or four large national projects … The IRGC is not a rival to the people and the private sector … The IRGC today must take on important projects that the private sector is unable to take on."
It was clear from the onset of the Rouhani government that the new administration will try to push the IRGC back into a more strategic position rather than allowing the continued penetration of economic sectors by the military entity. For example, Rouhani’s choice for minister of information and communication technology, Mahmoud Vaezi, was a rebuff to the IRGC, which had controlled this sector for eight years. Furthermore, the return of Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and Mohammadreza Nematzadeh to the ministries of Petroleum and Industry, Mining and Trade were all signs that these sectors would be pushed back to the pre-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad era.
Even the Reformist media started highlighting the tensions emerging from the IRGC’s expanded role in the Iranian economy. The daily Shargh published on July 22 a challenging interview with the IRGC's spokesperson, Commander Ramezan Sharif, in which he was asked to explain the logic of the IRGC’s presence in economic activities. Sharif outlined that the main motivation for IRGC’s role was “national security” and that the IRGC saw itself as a “protector of Iranian interests,” including economic ones.
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