What is the extent of the IRGC's control over Iran?

The IRGC on January 7 slammed some 15 missiles onto US military bases in Iraq. The attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase was promised 'revenge' on the US after a Us orchestrated drone attack killed top military commander General Qasem Soleimani. The missile attack was carried out by IRGC or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. After the attack, the IRGC in a statement had said that they would retaliate against US allies if they allowed the US to launch more attacks on Iran.

So, who exactly is the Revolutionary Guard Corps? They are a branch of Iran's military, one that the slain General Soleimani served. Established in 1979, the IRGC' is intended to protect Iran's Islamic republic political system. 1979 was also the year Iran's first supreme leader Sayyid Ruhollah Khomeini came to power, which overthrew the last shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Amidst the standoff over belligerence on Iran's part about the nuclear deal and the US imposing sanctions on the nation, nearly excluding it from the world economy, the US labelled the Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organisation.

Going by a broad brief, the group is endowed by political, legal ad religious power- a lethal mix, one could say. The Revolutionary Guards are one of the branches of the Iranian army and while it has certain control over the ground forces and the navy, it also has control of Quds forces and Basij.

In comparison, Quds forces are roughly an amalgamation of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the United States. The Quds also support proxy groups in the region like Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shia militias in Iraq and Houthis in Yemen to name a few. Basij is an auxiliary paramilitary force made up of part-time civilian volunteers. Basij was often deployed to quell 2009 Iranian election protests and 2017–18 Iranian protests.

And it is due to this, that western analysts often say that IRGC powers may have exceeded that of the country's Shia clerical system. 

The IRGC is also said to have economic interests in form of some control over certain construction and oil companies like Oriental Oil Kish, Imensazen Consultant Engineers Institute and Hara Company, an excavation and tunnel construction company. 

The IRGC is also known to have a certain influence over the conventional armed forces, which is said to have approximately 470,000 personnel. The Corps is also said to have a hand in rebuilding the nation after its gruelling 8-year-war with Iraq. Another area that the IRGC has a say over is the ballistic missile and nuclear programs. And this causes the US to say that the Corps is responsible for much tension and volatility in the Mideast region. 

An Al Jazeera report once said about IRGC and its influence, “Such threats (When in 2017, IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said that his troops 'will consider the American army to be like Islamic State all around the world') are particularly ominous for US forces in places such as Iraq, where Iran-aligned Shia militia are located in close proximity to US troops.”