Mohammad Hossein-Zadeh Hejazi ( fa, محمد حسینزاده حجازی, 20 January 1956 – 18 April 2021) was a military commander in Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
.
Early life and education
Hejazi was born in
Isfahan
Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...
in 1956.
He attended the
University of Tehran
The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...
.
Career
Hejazi became a member of the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
in May 1979.
He served as the intelligence and security advisor to the Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei
Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنهای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia ''marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president o ...
.
He was a former commander of
Basij
The Basij ( fa, بسيج, lit. "The Mobilization"), Niru-ye Moghāvemat-e Basij ( fa, نیروی مقاومت بسیج, "Resistance Mobilization Force"), full name Sâzmân-e Basij-e Mostaz'afin ( fa, سازمان بسیج مستضعفین, "The ...
, the auxiliary
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ian
paramilitary
A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. On January 20, 2020, he became the Deputy Commander of the Quds Force, by decree of the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
Allegations
It is alleged by the
American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the dean of American Jewish org ...
that Hejazi, while serving as an advisor to Khamanei, attended a meeting in August 1993 to plan the
AMIA bombing
The AMIA bombing occurred on 18 July 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and targeted the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA; ), a Jewish Community Centre. Executed as a suicidal attack, a bomb-laden van was driven into the AMIA buildi ...
in Argentina along with Khamanei,
Rafsanjani
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ( fa, اکبر هاشمی رفسنجانی, Akbar Hāshemī Rafsanjānī, born Akbar Hashemi Bahramani, 25 August 1934 – 8 January 2017) was an Iranian politician, writer, and one of the founding fathers of the Islami ...
, then president,
Ali Fallahian
Ali Fallahian ( fa, علی فلاحیان , born 23 October 1949) is an Iranian politician and cleric. He served as intelligence minister from 1989 to 1997 under the presidency of Ali Akbar Rafsanjani.
Early life and education
Fallahian was b ...
, then intelligence minister, and
Ali Akbar Velayati
Ali Akbar Velayati ( fa, علیاکبر ولایتی ; born 24 June 1945, Tehran) is an Iranian conservative politician and physician. He is currently member of the Expediency Discernment Council. Velayati is a distinguished professor at Shahi ...
, then foreign minister.
[
The subject was the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2008 and the commander of Tehran's Tharallah military base whose units were central to the government efforts to combat the ]2009 Iranian presidential election protests
After incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared victory in the 2009 Iranian presidential election, protests broke out in major cities across Iran in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The protests co ...
.
Sanctions
In 2010, the United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...
had placed Hejazi on its sanctions list. Similarly, the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
also sanctioned him in October 2011 for playing a "central role in the post-election crackdown."
Death
Hejazi died on April 18, 2021. It was reported that the cause of his death was announced as a heart condition although state media reports that he died of the chemical effects.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hejazi, Mohammad
1956 births
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps brigadier generals
2021 deaths
Military personnel from Isfahan