Ahmad Vahidi | The commander of asymmetric warfare
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
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.
The BriefWire