As negotiations over the war in Iran hold by a thread, a infamous Iranian commander sanctioned by the US and wanted by Interpol helps to craft Tehran’s subsequent strikes.
Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), assumed the function after his predecessor, Mohammad Pakpour, was killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28 – the primary day of the war.
Sanctioned by the US over his function in cracking down on domestic protests and wanted by Interpol for alleged involvement in a bombing in Argentina three many years in the past, Vahidi is without doubt one of the fiercest opponents of compromise with Washington and, consultants say, is much more radical than Pakpour.
“He is influential, but (he is) part of a system,” stated Ali Vaez, Iran undertaking director on the International Crisis Group. “Decisions are made in a consensual manner and undoubtedly Vahidi has a very loud voice in the room.”
Vahidi’s rise to grow to be one in all Iran’s high decision-makers exhibits that US and Israeli efforts to decapitate the country’s leadership haven’t produced a extra average ruling echelon. Under Vahidi’s management, the IRGC has successfully choked visitors on the world’s most essential oil checkpoint, whereas Tehran’s calls for from Washington now exceed these made in earlier negotiations.
Vahidi is a “very dominant” and “radical” man who’s deeply dedicated to the rules of the Islamic Revolution, Danny Citrinowicz, former head of the Iran department of Israel’s army intelligence, advised NCS.
“You cannot agree on something without passing (it by) him,” Citrinowicz stated. “He is among the people saying if we don’t get what we want, if Trump wants to go back to war, welcome.”
US President Donald Trump stated he was on the verge of placing Iran once more this week, threatening to reignite the war until Tehran agrees to a deal. He later stated he was prepared to attend to see whether or not talks progressed however warned that “the clock is ticking.”.
“We’re in the final stages of Iran. We’ll see what happens,” Trump advised reporters on Wednesday morning about efforts to safe a deal.
“We’ll either have a deal or we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty,” he went on. “But hopefully that won’t happen.”
Vahidi warned on Wednesday that “if any further aggression is committed against the soil of Iran, that fire whose promise was previously given and remained confined within the framework of a limited regional war, this time will erupt into flames and transcend every border and domain.”
“You will receive devastating blows,” he stated on X, based on Iranian media.
The commander shouldn’t be typically seen in public, however on Thursday, photographs of Vahidi assembly Pakistan’s inside minister circulated in media shops. Iranian media debunked the pictures, saying Vahidi didn’t meet the Pakistani official, and that the image dates again to 2024.
While officers like Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the parliament speaker, and international minister Abbas Araghchi are usually seen as the general public faces of Iran and its negotiations with the US, Vahidi is probably going advocating for a few of Iran’s most hardline insurance policies from behind the scenes, some consultants say.
Iran has to date refused to simply accept any proposal that in its eyes would quantity to capitulation. After weeks of exchanging proposals, Iran’s newest provide didn’t present vital concessions on critical sticking points, based on a particular person accustomed to the matter, who stated problems with nuclear enrichment stay central to the deadlock.
Experts say that for the reason that Iran war started, Tehran has been led by a small clique of IRGC pedigree who emerged from the rubble of the Iran-Iraq war in the Nineteen Eighties. Vahidi is a key player amongst them.
He turned “a very important actor but within the systemic limitations the Islamic Republic has,” Vaez stated, including that he has specific clout when the nation is at war.
How a lot of an impediment he could also be to reaching a take care of the US stays unclear.
In April, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in Washington, DC, stated that “Vahidi’s apparent willingness to scrap US-Iran talks indicates that Vahidi is prepared to resume the war if needed.” But Vaez stated there has to date been no proof that Vahidi is an impediment.
Born in 1958 in Shiraz, Vahidi’s ideology was formed by war and confrontation with the West. He joined the institution at its inception following the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and was appointed deputy chief of intelligence in 1981.
Before that, he studied electronics and industrial engineering, based on Iranian media.
“He was shaped by the IRGC,” Citrinowicz stated, which the US has designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
He is wanted by Interpol over his alleged function in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish group middle in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 85 folks. He can be reported to have had contacts with Israelis in the Nineteen Eighties in the course of the “Iran-Contra affair,” the Israeli-backed, US scheme to promote weapons to Iran after which use proceeds to fund anti-communist rebels, recognized as the Contras, in Nicaragua.
He was Iran’s first commander of the Quds Force, an elite unit of the IRGC, and assumed a number of roles through the years, together with deputy chief of the IRGC and the Iranian military, protection minister, and inside minister.
In 2022, Vahidi was sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for the violent crackdown in opposition to protesters in the wake of the loss of life of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police for allegedly flouting Iran’s Islamic costume code and died in custody.
“Vahidi has warned Iranian women that the government’s security forces will penalize those ‘breaking rules’ in reference to hijab compliance,” the US Treasury stated, including that he has explicitly threatened protesters and defended brutal actions in suppressing ongoing protests.
An ominous cloud hangs over Vahidi, as a number of of his predecessors have been assassinated by the US and Israel – together with Qasem Soleimani, the previous commander of the Quds Force.
“He is a wanted man,” Citrinowicz stated. “He is a guy to be reckoned with.”