Iranian state media reported Sunday morning that Ahmad Vahidi will take the helm of the Revolutionary Guards (the IRGC) after a joint strike eliminated his predecessor Mohammad Pakpour Saturday night. The sanctioned new commander carries a dark legacy, including deep ties to the devastating bombing of the Jewish community center in Argentina. Who exactly is Ahmad Vahidi?
Born in 1985 in the Iranian city of Shiraz, Vahidi joined the Revolutionary Guards a year after the 1979 revolution that toppled the Pahlavi dynasty and ushered in ayatollah rule under Ruhollah Khomeini.
Vahidi rapidly ascended the ranks of the Revolutionary Guards, securing an appointment as deputy for internal security within the organization's intelligence unit.
The Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Tasnim news agency noted that Vahidi led the intelligence directorate until the end of the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. The outlet also credited him with helping establish the Ministry of Intelligence and Security in 1983.
Beyond his extensive intelligence background, Brig. Gen. Vahidi served as the founding commander of the Quds Force (the IRGC foreign operations arm), the elite unit tasked with executing extraterritorial operations and gathering foreign intelligence. Qassem Soleimani, whom an American targeted strike eliminated in Baghdad five years ago, eventually succeeded him.
Shortly after Vahidi established the Quds Force, a Lebanese terrorist detonated a massive car bomb at the AMIA (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association) Jewish community building in Buenos Aires. The devastating suicide attack killed 85 people and wounded 330 others.
Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman concluded in 2006 that the AMIA attack "was agreed upon at the highest levels of the Iranian government." Nisman's rigorous investigation prompted the Argentine judiciary to issue international arrest warrants for nine Iranian and Hezbollah officials, prominently featuring Vahidi. Interpol (the international police organization) also maintains an active red notice for him over his role in the massacre.
Transitioning from his Quds Force command, Vahidi joined the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics as deputy for planning, serving in that capacity until 2005. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the Iranian presidency that year, Vahidi stepped up as deputy head of the Defense Ministry.
During Ahmadinejad's second term in 2009, Vahidi took charge as defense minister for four years. He leveraged the position to rapidly accelerate the development of conventional weaponry, focusing on tanks, fighter jets, missiles, and armored combat vehicles.
His appointment as defense minister drew fierce international backlash due to his documented involvement in the AMIA bombing. When Bolivia invited Vahidi to a ceremony in 2011, Argentina and the global Jewish community launched massive protests. The Bolivian interior minister swiftly expelled him. The official stated, "The Bolivian government ensured that Ahmad Vahidi would leave Bolivian territory immediately," while formally apologizing to his Argentine counterpart for the diplomatic blunder.
In August 2021, former President Ebrahim Raisi – infamously known as the "Butcher of Tehran" before dying alongside his foreign minister in a 2024 helicopter crash – appointed Vahidi as interior minister.
Observers widely consider Vahidi fiercely loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. When the fracture between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei erupted into public view, Vahidi effectively served as the supreme leader's mole within the cabinet, routinely submitting official reports to Khamenei detailing the chaos paralyzing the government.
The interim Revolutionary Guards commander champions notoriously hardline policies. He previously warned that Israel would draw its final breath if it dared strike the Islamic Republic's nuclear sites. In the wake of Soleimani's assassination, Vahidi publicly demanded retaliation that would cause the air to get stuck in the Americans' throats.
During a national television interview in July, an anchor asked him about the threat of an Israeli strike. He replied, "The Zionist regime is in complete isolation, and it does not have the power to attack Iran, unless it has decided to commit suicide because if it does so – it will be severely attacked and destroyed."
