Who's leading who in Iran??

As reported by one of my not so favorite news agencies: Xinhua. But I'll be coming to the issue of China soon enough.
Nevertheless, Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari warned Israel on Saturday in an Iranian newspaper:

Israel "is completely within the range of the Islamic republic's missiles" and it cannot confront Iran's missile power, Jafari told Iran's Jam-e Jam newspaper.

"The enemy possibly wants to delay our nuclear activities by attacking our nuclear sites, but any interruption would be very short since Iranian scientific ability is different from that of Syria and Iraq," he said.

As I already blogged yesterday:

"We advise U.S. officials to be careful not to face another tragedy," Mohammed Hejazi, an official in the military's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. "If you want to move toward Iran, make sure you bring walking sticks and artificial legs because if you come, you will not have any legs to return on."

Interestingly enough no major Western media outlet seems to recognize the fact how factionalized the Iranian state is.

It must be noted that the Revolutionary Guard is only a part of the Military establishment, but the fact that the Revolutionary Guard issues warnings towards Israel and the U.S. by themselves shows how split the power set up is in Iran.

The head of state is Ali Hoseini-Khameini, the Grand Ayatollah (since 4 June 1989), he's also the chief of staff when it comes to a war. The head of government: President Mahmud AHMADI-NEJAD (since 3 August 2005). Traditionally the Ayatollah is opposed to the President and this could be seen in recent months. The Revolutionary Guard seems to be closer to the Grand Ayatollah but at the moment it seems a bit unclear on which side of the wall the Revolutionary Guard will come down. Another faction that always seems to have some say in political matters is the Ulama the clergy (appointing the Grand Ayatollah and thus holding a very influential part in politics).

Anyways the interesting fact here is that Iran in fact is not one homogeneous country. The Revolutionary Guard, the Grand Ayatollah, the President all have own interests. It might be interesting to follow Iran's future statements in this light, instead of believing in the myth of a monolithic state.