[RT] Tehran’s appointment of a hardline new commander of its Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) could signal that Iran is preparing for conflict with the US, former Pentagon analyst Michael Maloof has told RT.
Brigadier General Hossein Salami, 58, will replace Mohammad Ali Jafari as the elite unit’s commander-in-chief, Iranian state media reported Sunday. Salami served as Jafari’s deputy since 2009 and began his career in the Guards in 1981. He is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War.
"Salami is more of a hardline person," Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst at the US Department of Defense, told RT. "He’s from the ’old guard,’ if you will."
Though Tehran has recently engaged in diplomacy to keep afloat the JCPOA nuclear deal after it was abandoned by the US, Salami’s appointment could represent a dramatic shift in Iranian policy, Maloof believes.
"It really suggests they’re going to double down on confronting the US," he said. "I think we’re about ready to enter a whole new phase of confrontation."
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I would expect it’s an indication from the Iranian leadership of a greater resistance, a greater standing-up to the Trump administration's sanctions, and an increasing likelihood for a confrontation.
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