“Guardians of the Revolution” on Arte: the story of the rise of the Pasdaran (IRGC) in the Middle East
Tonight, July 1, at 9 p.m. on the Franco-German network Arte, a new documentary by two French journalists lifts the veil on the murky leviathan that is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). As previewed by Radio France and the newspaper Libération, the film offers a rare exposé of the IRGC’s structure, reach, and vulnerabilities. And it does so at a moment when the Guard Corps appears—finally—to be reeling.
For more than four decades, the IRGC has functioned as the iron fist of the Islamic Republic—a hybrid beast: part mafia, part militia, part ideological vanguard. It has been the regime’s sword at home and its shadow abroad. But now, with geopolitical winds shifting and its regional proxies in disarray, the question no longer seems premature: Are we witnessing the twilight of the Guards? Is the IRGC’s vast empire—of fear, blood, and petro-dollars—beginning to collapse under the weight of its own contradictions?
Le Point does not mince words. It calls the IRGC a “violent octopus,” the tentacled source of much of the violence that has consumed the Middle East since 1979. Born in the wake of the Islamic Revolution as a militia to defend the nascent clerical regime, the IRGC soon grew into something far more insidious. It became an empire within an empire: repressing dissidents, running black-market networks, smuggling weapons, building missiles, trafficking oil, funding terror groups, and preaching jihad in the name of Khomeini’s vision.
That vision was never meant to stay inside Iran. From the very beginning, the regime’s clerical elite sought to export their revolution—and the IRGC was their instrument. Iran would not merely be a “Muslim country,” but the vanguard of a global Islamic awakening. And so began Tehran’s long game: portraying Israel and the United States as existential enemies, weaponizing the Palestinian issue, and establishing proxy groups throughout the Arab world to challenge Western-backed governments.
But somewhere along the way, the Guards stopped being just foot soldiers for the ayatollahs. They became the real power behind the throne.
As the documentary reveals, the IRGC’s rise to dominance was gradual but relentless. First, they entrenched themselves in the military and security structures, creating their own intelligence networks, naval fleets, and aerospace divisions. Then came political infiltration: the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former IRGC member, as president in 2005 marked a key milestone. It signaled the arrival of a new elite—men who traded fatigues for suits, and Kalashnikovs for contracts.
The real windfall came during the so-called “privatizations” of the 1990s and 2000s, when state-owned industries were handed—often at discount—to IRGC front companies. Oil, gas, construction, telecommunications, tourism, even media—one by one, key sectors fell under IRGC control. The Guards became oligarchs, operating through firms like Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters and countless shell companies that masked their footprint. What began as a revolutionary militia had become a trillion-dollar mafia state.
By the mid-2010s, no serious reform was possible without running into the IRGC wall. Even after the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA), when many hoped for a softening of the regime, the Guards doubled down. Economic liberalization threatened their monopolies. Diplomacy threatened their narrative of perpetual resistance. And so, they struck preemptively—sabotaging talks, arresting dual nationals, and unleashing loyalist mobs.
And when protests erupted in 2019, it was the IRGC and its Basij enforcers who responded with live bullets. In just a few days, they massacred hundreds—possibly more than a thousand—of unarmed civilians. Their message was clear: There would be no Velvet Revolution in Iran.
Meanwhile, the IRGC’s foreign wing, the Quds Force, lit fires across the region. Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq. Houthis in Yemen. Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. They were all IRGC projects—sustained with money, weapons, training, and ideological zeal. By 2019, the Guards boasted of controlling not just Tehran, but four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus, and Sana’a.
But pride, as always, precedes the fall.
The unravelling began on January 3, 2020. Qassem Soleimani, the architect of the IRGC’s regional empire, was incinerated by an American drone in Baghdad, on direct orders from President Donald Trump. His death was a seismic blow—not just militarily, but psychologically. The myth of IRGC invincibility had cracked.
Then came October 7, 2023: the Hamas attack on Israel. Whether or not the order came directly from Tehran, the fingerprints were Iranian. But the blowback was catastrophic. Israel’s crushing military response decimated Hamas, weakened Hezbollah, and sent the Syrian regime—already teetering—into a new spiral. The IRGC’s regional chessboard was turned into a graveyard.
And then, most recently, the unthinkable: On the night of June 21–22, 2025, reports surfaced that U.S. forces bombed key Iranian nuclear facilities—likely with Israeli coordination. The regime’s long-sought nuclear deterrent has been delayed indefinitely. If true, this strike would represent the single most devastating blow to the Guards’ strategic ambitions in decades.
And yet, the IRGC survives. Bloodied, cornered, perhaps even panicked—but not defeated. Like any mafia, its first instinct is preservation. It will continue to crush dissent at home, kidnap foreigners for leverage, and provoke chaos abroad.
But the signs of decay are mounting. Its economy is corrupt and unsustainable. Its propaganda no longer convinces even its own youth. Its enemies are more emboldened than ever. And history, at long last, may be catching up.
This is not yet the end of the IRGC. But it may well be the beginning of the end.
And with it, the empire built on tyranny, deception, and fear.
Description of the program translated from German:
Iran's Secret Rulers - The Revolutionary Guards (2/2) Power and manipulation
51 mins
The second episode deals with the arrest of Ruhollah Zam in Iraq and the release of Iranian-British journalist Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. It highlights how the Revolutionary Guard is circumventing international sanctions and strengthening its influence in the Middle East. But at what cost?
In the fall of 2019, Iranian opposition figure Ruhollah Zam, living in exile in France, was lured into a trap by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Iraq. He was extradited to Iran and arrested there. His fate demonstrates the brutal methods of an organization that has expanded its influence beyond Iran's borders. From armed groups in Iraq and Syria to the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip: the Revolutionary Guard has established a network of militias in the unstable region that supplies it with weapons and money. With this asymmetric warfare, it fights its regional adversaries – US and Israeli troops – far from Iranian borders, without risking direct conflict. In response, the West is attempting to push the Revolutionary Guard out of the global financial system. The US has placed the organization on its terror list, imposed particularly harsh sanctions against Iran, and targeted the country's most valuable resource with an oil embargo. This second episode of the documentary shows how the Revolutionary Guard, through a complex system of circumvention strategies, still manages to sell its oil worldwide and earn billions of dollars every year. Through these shadowy deals, the Revolutionary Guard was able to finance its militia network abroad and strengthen its position in the region—at least until October 7, 2023. Supporting the militias also carries risks: triggering a war that the Revolutionary Guard always wanted to avoid.
Director
Julie Lerat
Author
Julie Lerat
Armin Arefi
Producer
PROGRAM 33
country
France
Year
2025