List of commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

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The following individuals have been identified as senior officers (currently or in the past) of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces.

Table of Contents

Commanders-in-Chief[edit]

Javad Mansouri was IRGC’s “first unofficial commander”^[1] and acting during its “early formative phase”.^[2]Abbas Agha-Zamani, however is considered the “first official operational commander” and was appointed by the Commander-in-Chief.^[1]

No.	Commander-in-Chief	Took office	Left office	Time in office	Ref.
–	Mansouri, JavadJavad Mansouri Acting	March 1979	May 1979	3 months	^[2]
–	Chamran, MostafaMostafa Chamran (1932–1981) Acting	Summer 1979	Summer 1979	de facto officeholder	^[2]
–	Rafsanjani, AkbarAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1934–2017) Acting	August 1979	August 1979	less than a month	^[2]^[1]
–	Lahouti, HassanHassan Lahouti Acting	October 1979	November 1979	2 months	^[1]
–	Kian, FereydounLieutenant colonel Fereydoun Kian Acting	late 1979	late 1979	Unknown	^[2]
–	Khamenei, AliAli Khamenei (born 1939) Acting	24 November 1979	24 February 1980	92 days	^[1]
–	Duzduzani, AbbasAbbas Duzduzani (1942–2018) Acting	1980	1980	Unknown	^[1]^[3]
1	Agha-Zamani, AbbasAbbas Agha-Zamani	2 June 1980	27 June 1980	25 days	^[4]
2	Rezaee, MortezaMorteza Rezaee [fa]	22 July 1980	20 September 1981	1 year, 60 days	^[4]
3	Rezaee, MohsenMajor general Mohsen Rezaee (born 1954)	20 September 1981	19 September 1997	15 years, 364 days	^[4]
4	Safavi, Yahya RahimMajor general Yahya Rahim Safavi (born 1952)	19 September 1997	10 September 2007	9 years, 356 days	^[4]
5	Jafari, Mohammad AliMajor general Mohammad Ali Jafari (born 1957)	10 September 2007	21 April 2019	11 years, 223 days	^[4]
6	Salami, HosseinMajor general Hossein Salami (born 1960)	21 April 2019	Incumbent	3 years, 353 days	^[5]

Deputy Commanders-in-Chief[edit]

No.	Deputy Commander-in-Chief	Took office	Left office	Time in office	Ref.
1	Kolahdouz, YousefMajor Yousef Kolahdouz (1946–1981)	July 1980	29 September 1981	1 year, 90 days	^[6]
2	Shamkhani, AliAli Shamkhani (born 1955)	June 1982	24 September 1989	7 years, 115 days	^[2]^[7]
3	Safavi, Yahya RahimYahya Rahim Safavi (born 1952)	24 September 1989	10 September 1997	7 years, 351 days	–
4	Bagher Zolghadr, MohammadBrigadier general Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr (born c. 1954/1955)	13 September 1997	30 April 2006	8 years, 229 days	–
5	Rezaee, MortezaBrigadier general Morteza Rezaee [fa]	30 April 2006	22 May 2008	2 years, 22 days	–
6	Hejazi, MohammadBrigadier general Mohammad Hejazi (1956–2021)	22 May 2008	4 October 2009	1 year, 135 days	–
7	Salami, HosseinBrigadier general Hossein Salami (born 1960)	4 October 2009	21 April 2019	9 years, 199 days	–
8	Fadavi, AliCommodore Ali Fadavi (born 1961)	16 May 2019	Incumbent	3 years, 328 days	–

Chiefs of the Joint Staff[edit]

Commanders of military branches[edit]

Ground Forces[edit]

Aerospace Force[edit]

Navy[edit]

Quds Force[edit]

Basij[edit]

Chairmen of intelligence agencies[edit]

Intelligence Organization[edit]

Intelligence Protection Organization[edit]

Supreme Leader Representatives[edit]

No.	Representative	Took office	Left office	Time in office	Ref.
1	Lahouti, HassanHassan Lahouti	1979	1979	0 years	–
2	Mahallati, FazlollahFazlollah Mahallati	1980	1981	0–1 years	–
3	Taheri-Khorramabadi, HassanHassan Taheri-Khorramabadi	1981	1982	0–1 years	–
4	Faker, Mohammad-RezaMohammad-Reza Faker	1982	1983	0–1 years	–
(2)	Mahallati, FazlollahFazlollah Mahallati	1983	1986	2–3 years	–
5	Nouri, AbdollahAbdollah Nouri (born 1950)	1989	1990	0–1 years	–
6	Mohammadi-Araghi, MahmoudMahmoud Mohammadi-Araghi	1990	1991	0–1 years	–
7	Movahedi-Kermani, AliAli Movahedi-Kermani (born 1931)	1991	2006	14–15 years	–
8	Saeedi Shahroudi, AliAli Saeedi Shahroudi	2006	2018	11–12 years	–
9	Hajisadeghi, AbdollahAbdollah Hajisadeghi	2018	Incumbent	4–5 years	–

Ministers[edit]

References[edit]

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Steven O’Hern (2012). Iran’s Revolutionary Guard: The Threat That Grows While America Sleeps. Potomac Books, Inc. pp. 18, 22–23. ISBN 978-1597977012.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Nikola B. Schahgaldian, Gina Barkhordarian (March 1987), The Iranian Military Under the Islamic Republic (PDF), RAND, p. 118, ISBN 978-0-8330-0777-3, retrieved 15 January 2017
^ Sinkaya, Bayram (2015), The Revolutionary Guards in Iranian Politics: Elites and Shifting Relations, Routledge, pp. 96–97, ISBN 978-1317525646
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Forozan, Hesam (2015), The Military in Post-Revolutionary Iran: The Evolution and Roles of the Revolutionary Guards, Routledge, Table 2.1: Commander-in-Chief of the Sepah Since 1979, p 59, ISBN 9781317430742
^ Gladstone, Rick. “Iran’s Supreme Leader Replaces Head of Revolutionary Guards”. NYT. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
^ Allamian, Saeed (2016). I say for the history: Memories of Mohsen Rafighdoust (in Persian). Soore-ye Mehr. p. 127. ISBN 9786000302931. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
^ Katzman, Kenneth (September 1993). “The Pasdaran: institutionalization of revolutionary armed force”. Iranian Studies. 26 (3–4): 389–402. doi:10.1080/00210869308701809.