Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, shuffled the country’s military leadership on Nov. 19, appointing Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan deputy commander of the army, or Artesh. Pourdastan had previously led the army’s ground forces. His new appointment is significant in part because Pourdastan is one of the rare senior army commanders who has not been shy about directly engaging in Iran's political and ideological battles, and in part because of the possible intentions behind Khamenei's move.

In Iran, the army consists of regular ground, air and naval forces, which, together with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the police force, represents the country's total armed forces. The three are jointly headed by the General Staff, which reports to Khamenei as commander in chief. The well-known paramilitary Basij is part of the IRGC. The army, as Iran’s regular military, is supposed to work side by side with the IRGC, which was founded in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution and tasked specifically with “safeguarding the revolution.” In practice, however, the IRGC and the army have repeatedly clashed, most famously during the 1980-88 war with Iraq. In recent years, Khamenei has built up the IRGC as his power base and made it into one of the most formidable military organizations in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the army and the police have remained somewhat less ideological and more professional.

At first glance, Pourdastan's appointment might seem like a simple career upgrade, but his is an interesting case. After being appointed head of the army’s ground forces in 2008, he exhibited a taste for a larger-than-usual public profile. In this regard, he has repeatedly expressed grandiose plans reminiscent of those typically associated with the IRGC. For instance, he has thrown out the idea of developing a “national helicopter,” to be designed and built in Iran, and spoke of merely “waiting for an order” from Khamenei to “liberate Jerusalem.” Moreover, Pourdastan has never demurred from boasting about the Iranian army's presence in Arab countries, emphasizing that the forces under his command are working closely with the IRGC in Iraq and Syria. Of particular note, it was Pourdastan who announced the “first joint war games of the army and the IRGC” and declared in a public show of loyalty to the political system that the army “sees itself as having a debt to the Islamic Republic.”

None of this has gone unnoticed by hard-liners. For instance, in April the chairman of the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, praised Pourdastan in a Friday sermon, calling him an “example of the masterpiece that the Imam [Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] created by changing the army and turning all of its forces into revolutionaries.” The most controversial part of Pourdastan’s resume, however, is his association with the political strategist Hassan Abbasi. A long-time member of the IRGC, Abbasi heads its affiliated Center for Borderless Security Doctrinal Analysis.