Iran's Supreme Leader has approved the foreign minister and commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s extraterritorial force joining the board of trustees of the country’s main war heritage foundation, signaling deeper integration of foreign policy and regional military strategy.
The appointments were made to the board of the "Foundation for the Preservation and Publication of Sacred Defense Values," which oversees efforts to commemorate Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s.
In a separate decision, the foundation’s name has officially been changed to include the term “Resistance.”
The change was proposed by the board and approved by Ali Khamenei, reflecting Iran’s broader framing of its support for regional armed groups known as Iran's 'axis of resistance'.
The Quds Force is responsible for the IRGC’s overseas operations, and its inclusion alongside the foreign ministry signals a deeper institutional integration of Iran’s foreign policy and regional military strategy with the country’s war-time legacy narrative.
The foundation plays a prominent role in shaping public opinion and political discourse around what Iran refers to as the "Sacred Defense," a term used to describe the Iran-Iraq war (1980–1988).
Its activities often glorify martyrdom and stress the importance of ideological continuity, a concept which has been greatly challenged since the 2022 uprising when the Iranian government has faced its lowest levels of support since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
