When Ahmad Vahidi was appointed deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in December 2025, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, then Iran’s Supreme Leader, wrote in his decree that the Brigadier General’s elevation was aimed at “enhancing operational readiness and addressing the spiritual and material needs” of the IRGC.
Gen. Vahidi’s appointment came months after the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June 2025. On the opening day of that conflict, the IRGC’s Commander-in-Chief Hossein Salami was killed in a targeted Israeli strike. He was succeeded by Mohammad Pakpour. There was a fragile lull in tensions after that conflict. But Iran believed that a bigger war was coming. An experienced commander and one of the architects of Iran’s resistance infrastructure, Gen. Vahidi was brought in to help prepare the IRGC for the next round of fighting. Few, however, expected that he would soon be leading that war himself.
Gen. Pakpour was killed, along with Ali Khamenei and several other senior officials, on February 28 when the U.S. and Israel launched a new war against Iran. Within days, Gen. Vahidi was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC. He then disappeared almost entirely from public view, enforcing and directing Iran’s military response from the shadows. With Ali Khamenei dead and his successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, not seen in public since the war broke out, the IRGC, which has spearheaded Iran’s response, has emerged as the country’s most powerful state institution. At its helm, Gen. Vahidi has found himself in one of the most consequential — and unenviable — positions in the Islamic Republic.
Born on June 27, 1958 in Shiraz, Vahid Shahcheraghi grew up in the Shah’s tumultuous Iran. He adopted the nom de guerre ‘Ahmad Vahidi’ when he joined the IRGC, or Sepah-e-Pasdaran, in 1979, immediately after Ayatollah Khomeini established his rule following the collapse of the monarchical regime.
One of the main objectives of the Pasdaran was to preserve the revolution and the theocratic, constitutional system Khomeini and his followers built. The revolutionaries were wary of the loyalty of Iran’s regular Army that was commanded by royalists until the revolution. They wanted a fighting force that was completely loyal to the clergy. So they went on to build one. Khomeini described the Guards as “the soldiers of Islam”. “Wherever you be, guard yourselves against the self in you and from all the Satans around you,” he told Pasdaran after the group was founded. Ahmad Vahidi was one of those founding guards of Pasdaran.
The spy who became general
The Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88 transformed the IRGC from a militia network into a powerful fighting force. As a young soldier, Vahidi was appointed the deputy internal security chief in the IRGC intelligence unit. In 1983, at age 25, he became the intelligence chief, a post he would hold until the war was over in 1988, according to Tasnim news agency. Iran had laid the foundations for its regional resistance activities during this period. In 1982, the IRGC established the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, which later became Hezbollah. The ‘Department 900’ and the ‘Special External Operations Department’ of the IRGC oversaw the organisation’s overseas operations.
After the war, these two arms merged into one and the Quds Force was established as the Guards’ de facto external arm. Gen. Vahidi was appointed as its commander and he laid the foundations of what is now called Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who succeeded Gen. Vahidi, expanded the operations of the Quds Force and transformed the unit into a special operations and intelligence network spread across Iran’s neighbourhood. Gen. Soleimani was killed in January 2020 after an American air strike in the outskirts of Baghdad.
Rooted in Khomeini’s Shia revolutionism, Gen. Vahidi has been close to the conservative political establishment of the Islamic Republic. And he has held key positions throughout his long career. When reformist President Mohammad Khatami was in office, Gen. Vahidi was a deputy for planning at the Ministry of Defence. In 2005, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected President, Gen. Vahidi became the chief deputy defence minister. Mr. Ahmadinejad appointed him as Defence Minister after his contested re-election in 2009. During his term as Defence Minister, Gen. Vahidi focused on expanding Iran’s conventional military capabilities. Fars News Agency, describing his Defence Ministry tenure, called it “the golden age of Iran’s defensive deterrence”. According to the U.S. Treasury, which placed sanctions on him in 2010, he played a key role in procurement for Iran’s missile, drone and nuclear programmes.
Echoes of Karbala, Iran beyond the shadows of war
In August 2021, he was appointed the Interior Minister by President Ebrahim Raisi. His appointment solidified the IRGC’s role as a key external and internal security player during the Raisi administration. When protests broke out across the country in September 2022, following the death of Mahsa Amini, who was detained for allegedly violating Iran’s hijab rules, Gen. Vahidi oversaw the crackdown. An Interpol Red Notice remains active for his alleged role in the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 85 people. Argentine courts issued international arrest warrants for nine Iranian and Hezbollah officials, including Vahidi. He has also been sanctioned by Canada, the U.S. and the European Union for alleged involvement in terrorism and nuclear proliferation activities.
Theory of victory
After the recent war broke out, the IRGC responded by staging retaliatory attacks against Israel and targeting American bases across the Persian Gulf. It also closed the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway connecting the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman. The IRGC’s military theory is rooted in asymmetric warfare, not in proportional conventional response. By regionalising the war, closing the strait and threatening energy facilities across the Gulf, the IRGC has enhanced the economic cost of the war, putting the U.S. and regional monarchies under pressure.
There was a lull in fighting following the April 8 ceasefire and the July 17 memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran. But now, both countries have returned to another phase of all-out war — this time over the status of the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. Navy claims that the Strait is open. But the IRGC, which has turned the entire Persian Gulf into a battlefield, has retained its tight grip on the waterway.
As the U.S. bombing and Iran’s counterattacks continue, Gen. Vahidi finds himself in a position that is both powerful and precarious. A lifelong believer in perpetual resistance and asymmetric warfare, he now faces his greatest test. Many of his senior commanders have been killed, much of Iran’s military infrastructure has come under sustained attack, and the country remains under relentless bombardment. The U.S. and Israel seek to compel Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and dismantle its nuclear programme. Gen. Vahidi’s theory of victory is, however, different — to ensure that Iran survives and the state endures, while defeating the enemy by denying a victory.
Published – July 19, 2026 01:32 am IST
