This is the logo of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), or Pasdaran in Farsi. It was founded in May 1979 following the Iranian Revolution that replaced Iran’s monarchy with an Islamic republic under the auspices of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The IRGC has provided training, financial and material support to various organizations, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Taliban and Shi’i militias in Iraq. The image contains a number of common elements: an assault rifle in a raised fist, a globe hinting at the global expansion of the Islamic revolution, a copy of the Holy Qur’an, the caption “Sipah Pasdaran Inqilab Islami” (“Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”) and the partial Qur’anic verse (Q8:60): “wa-a‘iddu lahum ma istata‘tum min quwwa” (“and prepare for them what you can by way of power/ strength”). It is noteworthy and not a coincidence that the logo of Hezbollah closely resembles the IRGC logo.
