Basij

Basij

Motto	"20,000,000 man army"
Formation	26 November 1979; 45 years ago (1979-11-26) (decreed) 30 April 1980; 44 years ago (1980-04-30) (founded)
Founder	Ruhollah Khomeini
Type	Paramilitary volunteer militia
Purpose	Auxiliaries
Methods	"To create the necessary capabilities in all individuals believing in the constitution and goals of the Islamic revolution to defend the country, the regime of the Islamic Republic, and aid people in cases of disasters and unexpected events"
Fields	Internal security, law enforcement, moral policing
Commander	Brig. Gen. Gholamreza Soleimani
Parent organization	None (1980–81) Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (since 1981)
Budget (1395 SH)	$357.08 million[1]
Staff (2005)	90,000 (CSIS estimate)
Volunteers (2009)	11.2 million (official data) 600,000 available for mission[2]
Website	basij.ir

The Basij (Persian: بسيج, lit. "The Mobilization"), Niru-ye Moghāvemat-e Basij (Persian: نیروی مقاومت بسیج, "Mobilisation Resistance Force"), full name Sāzmān-e Basij-e Mostaz'afin (Persian: سازمان بسیج مستضعفین, "The Organization for Mobilization of the Oppressed"),^[3][4] is one of the five forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).^[5]

1. ↑ "Iran decreases IRGC budget for next year". AzerNews Newspaper. 18 January 2016. Archived from the original on 23 April 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
2. ↑ Kenneth Katzman (6 February 2017), "Iran's Foreign and Defense Policies" (PDF), Congressional Research Service, Federation of American Scientists, p. 24, archived (PDF) from the original on 8 March 2017, retrieved 1 March 2017
3. ↑ John Pike. "GlobalSecurity.org Intelligence: Mobilisation Resistance Force". Archived from the original on 30 April 2011. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
4. ↑ AEI Outlook Series: What Do Structural Changes in the Revolutionary Guards Mean? Archived 27 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine
5. ↑ Forozan, Hesam (2015), The Military in Post-Revolutionary Iran: The Evolution and Roles of the Revolutionary Guards, Taylor & Francis, pp. 56–58, ISBN 978-1317430735