IND:  This should be an interesting report by RAND.  If any reader has access to the public sections of this report, please email us so we could post it.  Thanks.

The Revolutionary Guard Corps has “gained primacy” in Iran since the 2009 presidential election, fueling fears there that the country is becoming militarized, a Pentagon-sponsored study said Tuesday.

The study by the RAND Corporation also urged US policymakers to take “great care” in their statements regarding Iran in order not to give the leadership a pretext to divert attention from domestic troubles, like the economy.

The disputed election was “a watershed event” in the Islamic republic’s history “that has altered elite relationships and solidified the position of the Islamist right and the Revolutionary Guards in Iranian politics,” it said.