Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has created a powerful new intelligence organisation to try to quell any further public unrest in the wake of June's disputed election, an exiled Iranian opposition group said yesterday.

The new organisation, responsible for intelligence and security, is an off-shoot of the Revolutionary Guards and will report directly to the Supreme Leader's office, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a Paris-based group that has followers in Europe and claims many in Iran.

The shift is the largest overhaul of the intelligence structure since 1989, when Iran's first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died, the NCRI believes, and reflects the depth of the leadership's concern about protests.

“Although the mullahs have made public declarations about the new organisation, they have nonetheless concealed its real dimension and true nature,” Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the NCRI, told a news conference in Brussels.

“Its command structure is linked directly to Khamenei.”