TEHRAN – The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps chief has said he commands the most powerful force in the beleaguered Middle East now “tenfold” stronger than ever. 

“Thirty-seven years after it was established, Sepah (IRGC) is now the most powerful armed force in the region with an invaluable repertoire of defensive experience…” said Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari on Wednesday. 
The IRGC chief was making the comments in a ceremony held to launch the first class of navy students at the IRGC navy college of Imam Khamenei on Wednesday. 
IRGC was founded in 1979 after the Islamic Revolution happened. Under the Constitution, the force is responsible to ward off all internal and external threats to the revolution. 
It played a major role in the eight-year war Iraq waged against Iran in 1980. 
“Today, Sepah’s power is not comparable to that of the sacred defense era, it can be said confidently that by God’s grace (IRGC’s) defense power is at least tenfold stronger than that of the last year of the war (in 1988),” he highlighted. 
 “Spirituality, faith, martyrdom spirit, defense motivation, combat, and jihad are among the most important indexes of Spepah,” Jafari pointed out. 
IRGC ground and navy divisions have been particularly active over the past years defending Iranian borders in the boiling Middle East. 
Also, it has been patrolling in Iran’s territorial waters in the strategically sensitive Persian Gulf, what the IRGC believes has helped an ever-ready-to-combat IRGC. 
“This has caused Sepah to be ready to combat around the clock.” 

AK/PA