By: Reza Shafa
In July 1979, the IRGC commander, Javad Mansouri ordered Mohsen Rezaii, later he was appointed Commander in Chief of the IRGC, to head the newly established intelligence office.
In September of 1979, Mansouri was replaced by Abbas Douzdouzani for lack of competence. However, his tenure as the IRGC top commander did not last long and had the same fate as his predecessor. He was replaced by present deputy commander in chief of the IRGC, Morteza Rezaii.
It seems that in those days IRGC top commanders did not last on the job as long as the ones who assumed the post in the later parts of the force’s life.
Rezaii was soon replaced by Abbas Abu-Sharief in 1980. But as the trend had been with the previous commanders, he did not stay in the office long and by the turn of the year, in 1981, he was out too.
His dismissal however was different from his peers and certainly was not due to incompetence since he had a long record of guerrilla warfare in Lebanon. But this may not be accurate and the closest to reality was the fact that Abu-Sharief was close to Abol-hassan Banisadr, the first Iranian president, and with him sacked, there would not have been any possibility for Abu-Sharief to hold on to his job.
Mohsen Rezaii, then running the intelligence office, replaced Abu-Sharief and stayed on the job until 1997 when he resigned as head of the IRGC and Yahya Rahim-Safavi replaced him. Maj. Gen. Rahim-Safavi was also dismissed by the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. It was Mohammad Ali Jafari a.k.a. Aziz Jafari to head the deadly force, now. He was elevated in ranks by Khamenei, from a Brigadier General to a Major General over night.
To be continued
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Reza Shafa is an expert on the Iranian regime’s intelligence networks, both in Iran and abroad. He has done extensive research on VAVAK (MOIS), IRGC’s Intelligence Office, and Quds Force among others. Currently he is a contributor to NCRI website.