Anon
03/15/26, 05:44No.530770720 >Why the Iranian regime remains difficult to overthrow — BBC News
>According to Bernard Hourcade, former director of the French Research Institute in Iran, the country does not function as a traditional dictatorship centered on a single leader, but as a "poly-dictatorship": an alliance between proponents of political Islam and intense Iranian nationalism: "Power is distributed among various spheres—clerical institutions, armed forces, and strategic sectors of the economy—which makes the system much more difficult to overthrow than regimes based on a single leader."
>The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is often described as the "backbone of the regime," says Hourcade.
>In addition to its military function, the IRGC has become a political and economic power, with vast business interests and influence exerted through the Basij militia, a voluntary paramilitary organization.
>"It's a structure similar to the Hydra: you cut off one head and others grow back," says Sébastien Boussois, a Middle East researcher at the European Geopolitical Institute in Belgium.
>For Boussois, this cohesion is deeply linked to ideology: "This culture of martyrdom present among Shiites and in groups like Hamas and Hezbollah is almost considered part of the job," he states.
>The Deputy Minister of Defense, Reza Talaeinik, recently declared on TV that each commander of the Guard has designated successors up to three levels below, ensuring operational continuity.
>Kasra Aarabi, head of research on the Guard at the American organization United Against Nuclear Iran, argues that Iran's decentralized structure was shaped by the lessons of the collapse of Iraqi forces in 2003, during the US-led invasion.
>Trump claimed that the capture of Maduro would be the "perfect scenario" for Iran. Boussois argues that the opposite could happen — as in North Korea or Cuba — a strengthening of the regime's hard core.