Salami replaces Jafari at head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards

Brigadier General Hossein Salami was appointed commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on 21 April, replacing Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, who had been in post since 2007; Jafari was in effect demoted, being given a somewhat humiliating new role as head of an IRGC organisation charged with improving Islamic revolutionary education. The change of leadership came shortly after the United States designated the IRGC a terrorist organisation on 10 April.A number of other factors appear to be behind the move.