IRGC and Quds Force under the international spotlight
By Reza Shafa
“Interpol rejected Wednesday a request by Iran to drop arrest warrants against five leading Iranians, wanted by Argentina for their alleged role in a 1994 bombing that killed 85 people,” reported Agence France-Presse on November 7.
“The issue was voted on by delegates from the 145 Interpol member states attending the world police body’s annual general assembly in the Moroccan city of Marrakech,” reported the news agency.
Who are the five Iranians and what do they presently do?
In the order of their role in the past and current position in the mullahs’ regime hierarchy, they are: Major General Mohsen Rezai former IRGC commander in chief, Ali Fallahian former intelligence minister, Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi former Quds Force commander, Mohsen Rabbani, former cultural attaché in the regime’s embassy in Buenos Aires in 1994, and Ahmadreza Asghari, embassy’s third secretary at the time of the bombing.
Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi
Since the inception of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), he has been a close confidant of Mohsen Rezai, former IRGC commander. Vahidi and Rezai began by organizing the Liberation Movement Unit (LMU) of the IRGC on the order of Khomeini himself in early 1981. Shortly after, Vahidi was given an independent assignment as the Chief Intelligence Officer of the newly established Ballal Garrison of the IRGC.
It is worthy of note, that at the time of Khomeini, the IRGC had three bases for special operations abroad. They were geographically situated in the border region with countries that were of great interest to the mullahs for any future expansions. The three were, Ramadan Garrison in the west bordering with Iraq, Ansar Garrison in the east bordering with Afghanistan, and Ballal Garrison for Turkey, Europe, and the Far East. Of the three, Ramadan and Ansar are still active but Ballal no longer exists.
In 1983, when Khomeini had ordered the IRGC to get more involved in Lebanon’s internal affairs, Vahidi was given the task with Hossein Mosleh as his field commander in the country to form and operate the Lebanon Corps of the IRGC.
The most devastating operation of the newly formed Lebanon Corps was The Beirut barracks bombing on October 23, 1983, during the Lebanese Civil War. Two truck bombs struck separate buildings in Beirut housing U.S. and French members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon, killing hundreds of servicemen, the majority being U.S. Marines. The death toll was 241 American servicemen.
For his outstanding service, Vahidi was promoted in 1991. He was assigned by Khamenei to establish the Quds Force for the IRGC. Vahidi held his position as the commander of the Quds Force until 1997. All of the terrorist operations carried out by the MOIS or the Quds Force were under his close supervision.
Currently, Vahidi is deputy defense minister in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s cabinet. His primary task is to oversee the research and development of weapons of mass destruction.
Former Intelligence Chief, Ali Fallahian
Ali Fallahian, former minister of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and currently is supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s top security advisor. Following the 1979 revolution, he was the Islamic judge in the southwestern cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr as well as the provincial capital Kermanshah and in the eastern province of Khorasan. During the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, Fallahian was the Inspector General for the Islamic Armed Forces. In his capacity, he court marshaled many army officers who were critical of the death tolls at the fronts. Following the war, he had become the first prosecutor of the special court for the clerics.
He was one of the founders of the much dreaded Ministry of Intelligence and Security.
Proceeding to his appointment as the intelligence minister in Aliakbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s cabinet, he held the influential post of Deputy Prosecutor General of the Islamic Revolution; the post which directly involved him in thousands of execution orders.
The Chain murders of Iranian intellectuals or 1998 Serial Murders of Dissident Intellectuals were a series of murders and disappearances during Mohammad Khatami’s first term, from about 1996 to 2001. Fallahian’s chilling role in the murders was revealed by some of the regime’s so-called “insiders.”
His current position is a member of the regime’s Assembly of Experts (the highest lawmaking body with the authority to question the supreme leader himself).
Mohsen Rabbani, the mullahs’ regime cultural attaché in Argentina
Mohsen Rabbani a member of the Iranian clergy himself was appointed Cultural Atttaché in Buenos Aires in 1994. His predecessor Abd Khodaii, himself a mullah, had prepared the grounds for the operation long before Rabbani’s arrival in the regime’s embassy in the South American country. He had established close ties with the so-called Muslim groups in the region and began supporting them by offering money and other logistical help. Abd Khodaii already had put susceptible members of such groups in contact with the terror units of the regime.
Abd Khodaii’s term came to an end before the operation and he briefed Rabbani in the foreign ministry in Tehran. Upon his arrival in Buenos Aires, Rabbani followed Abd Khodaii’s instructions by establishing secret contacts with the leads he had. In his own words, Rabbani was looking for “devoted Muslims” for the job. Since his plan was of great importance for the regime, Khamenei generously began spending on it by allocating an independent budget officially running at $7 million. Aside from the confirmed budget, Rabbani would receive the necessary funds for each new project.
Following the explosion, Rabbani was implicated by Argentina’s authorities as a prime suspect and in 1977 he was barred from entering that country. In turn, Interpol issued an arrest warrant for him.
In his years in the South American country, he built a secret network concentrating on the Shiites in entire Latin America.
Since his return to Iran, Rabbani was officially given the title of Khamenei’s representative in South American countries which has earned him a budget of $3 million a year for his terrorist projects in that region. Over the years, he has been able to recruit some South American nationals to the IRGC’s training camps in Iran.
Ahmadreza Asghari, a senior Quds Force officer took cover as the third secretary in the Iranian embassy in Argentina
Asghari was first recruited by the IRGC in 1979 and was a commanding officer at the seventh division of the force until 1984.
In 1986, he was transferred to the foreign ministry for his special skills in terrorist operations. Germany was his next stop where he worked in the consular section of the Iranian consulate in Frankfurt. Finally, he was dispatched to Argentina to carry out his missions.
He was appointed as the third secretary of the regime’s embassy in Argentina and was in charge of carrying out the operation. Asghari returned to Iran immediately after the bombing.
Major General Mohsen Rezai, a former commander in chief of the IRGC
Much has been said in past about Rezai and his performance as one of the founding fathers of the deadly force and his service to the regime in general.
Rezai is currently the Secretary of the influential Expediency Council headed by Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Subsequent to IRGC and Quds force designation, information has been evolving about the terrorist role of the IRGC outside Iran. However, its dreadful image inside is still in the shadow. The force is certainly responsible for a brutal crackdown on Iranian youths for the past thirty years; something worth examining closely.
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 the NCRI website.