The Constitution of the Islamic Republic entrusted the defense of Homeland’s territorial integrity and political independence to the regular military (artesh), while it gave the Pasdaran the responsibility of preserving the Revolution itself.Days after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s return toCapital on February 1, 1979, Mehdi Bazargan’s interim administration established the Pasdaran under a decree issued by Khomeini on May 5. The Pasdaran was intended to protect the revolution and to assist the ruling clerics in the day-to-day enforcement of the new government’s Islamic codes and morality.
There were other, perhaps more important, reasons for establishing the Pasdaran. The Revolution needed to rely on a force of its own rather than borrowing the previous regime’s tainted units. As one of the first revolutionary institutions, the Pasdaran helped legitimize the revolution and gave the new government an armed basis of support. Moreover, the establishment of the Pasdaran served notice to both the population and the regular armed forces that the Khomeini government was quickly developing its own enforcement body.
