Iran Deploys Elite Revolutionary Guard Units For ‘Great Prophet 19’ Exercises: Warns Israel to Avoid ‘Large Scale War’

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is currently holding the ‘Great Prophet 19’ large-scale military exercise in the country’s Kermanshah province, a territory that faces the country’s leading regional adversaries Israel and Turkey. The exercises are intended enhance the combat readiness of elite units and test a number of newly developed weapons systems. Exercises are expected to bolster the Corps’ operational capacity and address potential threats from hostile actors. Initial phases have involved rapid response scenarios, including the strategic deployment of personnel and equipment in the Avroman mountainous regions. The exercises were initiated at a time of high tensions between Tehran and Israel in particular, and less than a month after Israeli and Turkish backed Islamist militant groups overthrew the government of Tehran’s closest regional strategic partner Syria on December 8, 2024. With Israeli and Turkish forces having advanced far into Syria, and increasingly appearing set to annex large parts of its territory, Iran’s newfound isolation in the region has fuelled speculation that Israel could launch a new series of attacks against Iranian targets. 

The Revolutionary Guard Corps is responsible for both domestic security and for almost all foreign operations, and recently suffered a major setback when over a decade of efforts to bolster the Syrian state against Western, Turkish and Israeli backed Islamist insurgent groups ended in the fall of Damascus. The Corps’ operations are in future expected to be focused more heavily on operations domestically and in neighbouring Iraq, where it still retains close ties with the local armed forces and a number of local militia groups. At a time of high tensions between Israel and Iran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on January 4 stated that Tehran was “fully prepared for the possibility of further attacks by Israel.” “I hope Israel will refrain from taking such reckless actions, as it could lead to a large-scale war,” he stated, adding: “we believe that reason will ultimately prevail and prevent actions that could have serious consequences.” Iranian and Israeli forces launched multiple limited strikes on one another's territories in 2024, with Iran having launched an unprecedented missile attack on April 13 in response to an Israeli air strike on an Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus twelve days prior. After Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in his residence in Tehran by an Israeli air strike on July 31, Iran retaliated with large scale attacks on October 1.