Iran has appointed wanted fugitive Ahmad Vahidi as the new commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the Iranian state news agency Mehr.
The move places at the head of the powerful military force an officer considered “a fugitive from Argentine justice” over his alleged role in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, the nation’s worst-ever terrorist attack.
Vahidi, 66, is a long-time IRGC figure who previously led the elite Quds Force from 1988 to 1997 and later served as defence minister and interior minister. In recent months he had been serving as deputy commander-in-chief of the IRGC and was widely seen as acting in an interim leadership capacity before his formal elevation to commander.
His appointment, reported by Iranian news outlets, comes amid a leadership vacuum following the death of several top officials – including previous RGP chief, General Mohamad Pakpur – in airstrikes carried out by the United States and Israel last weekend.
In addition to confirmation of the death of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian regime confirmed that those killed in the air strikes included the Armed Forces chief-of-staff, Major General Abdorrahim Musaví; defence minister Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh; and Ali Shamjani, the secretary of the Supreme Defence Council.
Vahidi’s appointment reinforces the hardline stance of the military establishment, despite the Interpol red notices hanging over him for alleged acts of international terrorism.
The new Revolutionary Guards chief is one of the main suspects accused over the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires and remains subject to outstanding international arrest warrants.
He has been formally accused by Argentina’s Judiciary of being one of the masterminds behind the deadly terrorist attack, which left 85 people dead and more than 300 injured.
According to investigators, Vahidi allegedly participated in a 1993 meeting where the decision was made to carry out the bombing.
Last June, Argentina’s government condemned Vahidi’s interim appointment as “an unacceptable provocation” towards Argentina and all free nations that “defend life and condemn terrorism.”
The statement alleged that Vahidi is a military figure “linked to terrorist operations,” who has been the subject of “an international arrest warrant and a red notice from Interpol” since 2007 in connection with the AMIA attack.
According to the late prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who led the AMIA investigation before his death in 2015, Vahidi chaired the Iranian leadership group that evaluated and approved the proposal to carry out an attack on Argentine soil in 1994.
In 2024, a court in Argentina placed blame on Iran for the 1994 AMIA bombing and for a 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people.
The 1994 assault has never been claimed or solved, but Argentina and Israel have long suspected that the Iran-backed group Hezbollah carried it out at Tehran’s request.
Prosecutors have charged senior Iranian officials with ordering the attack, though Tehran denies any involvement. No-one has been arrested, and the case remains unsolved.
The court also implicated Hezbollah and classified the AMIA bombing as a “crime against humanity”, placing it beyond the statute of limitations despite the passage of time and lack of judicial progress.
– TIMES/NA
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