“Pravova derzhava”. Issue 36 (2025), pages 548–556.

DOI: 10.33663/0869-2491-2025-36-548-556

Trepak Viktor
System and Powers of the Intelligence Agencies of the Islamic Republic of Iran

The article highlights the system and powers of Iran’s intelligence agencies, which constitute a fairly extensive network coordinated by two main bodies with intelligence and counterintelligence powers, namely the Ministry of Information and the Supreme National Security Council of Iran. The main administrator of intelligence and counterintelligence information is the Supreme Leader of the country, who actually concentrates the authority to manage all the country’s intelligence agencies through the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, the Ministry of Information of Iran and the Islamic Republic of Iranian Guard Corps. The Ministry of Information, as the main coordinating intelligence agency of Iran, ensures the internal and external security of the state. Other intelligence agencies of Iran perform the intelligence function defined by the legislation of this country, taking into account the general orientation of the activities of the body within which the relevant intelligence agency is established. Intelligence activities in Iran are carried out, in particular, by the Center for Investigation of Organized Cybercrime, the Oghab 2 counterintelligence agency, and the Center for Judicial Counterintelligence. Despite the internationally recognized facts of rapprochement between Iran and the Russian Federation, Iranian intelligence agencies continue to operate exclusively in the interests of preserving Iran in the format of the Islamic Republic. If necessary, Iran, with the mediation of the intelligence agencies, will be ready to bring up the issue of mutual development of cooperation for informal discussion in negotiations with Western countries, which is dictated by the temporary situational rapprochement between the Russian Federation and Iran, as well as by the preservation of different strategic goals in common areas of interest (regions) in general.
Key words: intelligence agency, intelligence activity, counterintelligence activity, national security, Iran, Ministry of Information of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iranian Guard Corps, Qods Special Forces, Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Supreme Leader of Iran.

Reference

1. Ne tilky shakhedy. Sekretnyi zavod u Rosii naroshchuie vyrobnytstvo bezpilotnykiv dlia viiny proty Ukrainy — CNN. URL: http://surl.li/wzjxuo (data zvernennia: 20.01.2025). (ukr)
2. Deutsch A., Balmforth T., Landay J. Exclusive: Iran to deliver hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia soon, intel sources say. Reuters. August 10, 2024. URL: http://surl.li/tepbpm (data zvernennia: 20.01.2025).
3. Russian offensive campaign assessment, September 6, 2024. ISW. URL: http://surl.li/zxgyvj (data zvernennia: 20.01.2025).
4. Bordilovska O. Stratehichne partnerstvo Iranu ta Rosii na suchasnomu etapi: analitychna zapyska. Natsionalnyi instytut stratehichnykh doslidzhen. Tsentr zovnishnopolitychnykh doslidzhen. 19.09.2022. URL: http://surl.li/byizbw (data zvernennia: 12.01.2025). (ukr)
5. Romanov M. S., Hvozd V. I. Osnovy diialnosti spetssluzhb. Dnipro: Vydavets Lizunov Ye. V., 2024. 468 s. (ukr)
6. Bondarenko V. D. Suchasnyi ohliad na heopolitychnyi trykutnyk Kytai–Iran–Rosiia u konteksti kontrbalansu syly SShA u rehioni Blyzkoho Skhodu. Politykus. 2023. № 4. S. 113–120. (ukr)
7. Dudka R. A. Islamska respublika Iran v suchasnii systemi mizhnarodnykh vidnosyn. Literatura ta kultura Polissia. 2020. Vyp. 99. № 131. S. 144–152. (ukr)
8. Putkaradze K. Z. Kontseptualno-doktrynalni pidkhody Rosiiskoi Federatsii ta Islamskoi Respubliky Iran shchodo realizatsii stratehichnoho partnerstva v suchasnykh dvostoronnikh vidnosynakh. Rehionalni studii. 2020. № 23. S. 113–119. (ukr)
9. Golkar Saeid. Iran’s Intelligence Organizations and Transnational Suppression The Washington Institute. URL: http://surl.li/yvqyce (data zvernennia: 20.01.2025).
10. Mariano Riccardo. The Iranian Intelligence Services Through the Lenses of the Institutional and Bureaucratic models. URL: http://surl.li/fxqwte (data zvernennia: 20.01.2025).
11. Nouradin Jafari Hezarany. Iran’s security and intelligence challenges in dealing with the influence of Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies. URL: http://surl.li/gigehy (дата звернення: 12.01.2025). Intelligence and Security Activities in Other Countries. URL: http://surl.li/hepcsd (data zvernennia: 20.01.2025). (pers)
12. Nouradin Jafari Hezarany. Tam samo. (pers)
13. Nouradin Jafari Hezarany. Tam samo. (pers)
14. Iran (Islamic Republic of)’s Constitution of 1979 with Amendments through 1989. URL: http://surl.li/yssihb (data zvernennia: 20.01.2025). (eng)
15. Supreme National Security Council (SNSC). Organizational Chart of the Islamic Republic of Iran. URL: http://surl.li/szywkf (eng)
16. Закон (ناریا یمالسا یروهمج تاعالطا ترازو نوناق 16. (eng (.)20.01.2025 :zvernennia data( про міністерство інформації Ісламської Республіки Іран від 18.08.1983). URL: http://surl.li/vradtl (data zvernennia: 20.01.2025). (pers)
17. Tam samo. (pers)
18. Designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. An official website of the United States government. URL: http://surl.li/raczly (data zvernennia data zvernennia: 20.01.2025).
19. IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) / United Against Nuclear Iran. URL: http://surl.li/vfyxtb (data zvernennia: 20.01.2025).
20. Hamza Demirel. Assessing the Role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Extraterritorial Activities in Attaining Iran’s Foreign Policy Goals (PhD diss., International Studies, Old Dominion University, 2016). https://doi.org/10.25777/mfab-pf41
21. IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps). Tam samo.
22. IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps). Tam samo.
23. Connor Bradbury. Profiles: Iran’s Intelligence Agencies. April 5, 2023. URL: http://surl.li/ddqkny (дата звернення: 20.01.2025).