Ahmad Vahidi Age, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ahmad Vahidi

• In 1979, Ahmad Vahidi started working in the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

• In 1981, he was designated as deputy to Mohsen Rezaee, the Revolutionary Guards commander, for intelligence work.

• That same year, he was appointed as a commander of the Balaal base.

• In 1983, he started working as a brigadier general at the Quds Force, a Revolutionary Guards unit that handles operations outside Iran and focuses on unconventional warfare and military intelligence.

• In 2005, Vahidi was appointed as the deputy minister of defence of Iran when Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar became the defence minister. He served in the position till 2009.

  

  An old picture of Ahmad Vahidi

• In 2007, Interpol announced Vahidi as wanted for his alleged role in the 18 July 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 85 people.

• During that time, he served as a commander of the Quds Force, a special unit of the Revolutionary Guard of Iran.

• He became one of five Iranians who were accused of the bombing.

• Iran denied Vahidi’s involvement in the bombing, but Argentine prosecutors accused him of planning and executing the attack.

• In August 2009, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appointed him as the Minister of Defence after receiving 79.3% of the parliament votes. He served in the position till 15 August 2013, and he was replaced by Hossein Dehghan.

• In June 2010, the U.S. government blacklisted Vahidi to freeze assets of weapons of mass destruction proliferators and supporters. The U.S. cut them off from U.S. financial and commercial systems.

• In May 2011, Vahidi visited Bolivia. The next month, Bolivia apologised to Argentina for the visit and said that Vahidi would leave immediately.

• In 2016, he started working as the director of the Supreme National Defence University in Tajrish, Iran. He served in the position till 2021.

• In August 2021, he was appointed as the Interior Minister during the term of President Ebrahim Raisi.

• After that, Argentina condemned his appointment as the Interior Minister due to his suspected role in the 1994 AMIA bombing.

• Argentina’s former foreign minister called his appointment an insult to Argentina. He said,
  

  An insult to Argentina and a blow to the victims’ families.”

• The Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles said that it was painful for the victims’ families.

• In April 2024, Argentina’s criminal court announced the verdict that Iran planned the attack, and Hezbollah, who received help from Iran, executed the bombing.

• In May 2024, the Foreign Ministry of Argentina announced that Interpol issued a red notice for Vahidi’s arrest in the 1994 AMIA bombing case. The red notice accused him of murder and damage.

• After that, the United States, the European Union, and Switzerland sanctioned him for promoting terrorism, nuclear, and missile programs in Iran.

• The sanctions also targeted his role in suppressing protests inside Iran.

• In June 2025, when Hossein Salami died in the Israeli strikes on Iran, Vahidi was appointed as the temporary chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
  

  Ahmad Vahidi (left) while receiving his decree from Major General Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on 31 December 2025

• On 28 February 2026, the U.S. and Israel launched the operation, codenamed “Operation Epic Fury” by the U.S. and “Operation Roar of the Lion” by Israel.

• It targeted various Iranian military buildings, government offices, and sites of top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

• On 1 March 2026, Vahidi was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) after his predecessor, Mohammad Pakpour, was killed in a joint U.S.-Israel military operation.