Mojtaba Khamenei appoints Iran’s 6 new military commanders, fills up vacant posts
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Mojtaba Khamenei appoints Iran’s 6 new military commanders, fills up vacant posts")
Mojtaba Khamenei appointed six senior military commanders, formalizing the wartime leadership structure. Photograph: (AFP)
Ali Abdollahi was serving as commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the joint operational command responsible for coordinating Iran’s armed forces in wartime. He rose to be one of Tehran’s most visible military commanders during the conflict.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has made six new appointments to the Revolutionary Guards and armed forces, including Major General Pilot Ali Abdollahi as chief of staff of the armed forces and Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi as commander-in-chief of the IRGC.
A statement on Khamenei’s website announced, “Major General Ali Abdollahi has been appointed chief of staff of the armed forces. Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi has also been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with the rank of major general.”
Khamenei’s social media accounts also conveyed the appointments in a series of text posts.
Abdollahi replaces Abdolrahim Mousavi, who was killed alongside Pakpour and Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh in strikes on the opening day of the war.
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Abdollahi was serving as commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the joint operational command responsible for coordinating Iran’s armed forces in wartime.
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He rose to be one of Tehran’s most visible military commanders during the conflict as he issued warnings to the United States and Israel and oversaw Iran’s missile operations and its use of the Strait of Hormuz as military leverage.
Mojtaba appointed six senior military commanders, formalizing the wartime leadership structure that operated for months without decrees.
Ali Abdollahi was appointed chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, while former Army Ground Forces commander Kioumars Heydari was named his deputy.
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Khamenei also formally appointed Ahmad Vahidi as commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and promoted him to the rank of major general. Mostafa Izadi, the former commander of the Cyber and New Threats Headquarters of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, was named deputy commander-in-chief of the IRGC.
Rear Admiral Ali Azmaei was formally appointed as commander of the IRGC Navy, while Hossein Taeb, the powerful former head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, was named commander of the Basij paramilitary force.
The decrees confirm the positions of Vahidi and Azmaei, who had already been publicly presented as commanders of the IRGC and its navy respectively without published appointment orders from Khamenei.
Vahidi had been introduced as IRGC chief after Mohammad Pakpour was killed earlier this year, while Azmaei emerged publicly as the Guards’ naval commander in July following the killing of Alireza Tangsiri.
The appointments fill up some of the most consequential vacancies created by US-Israeli strikes.
