Yahya "Rahim" Safavi ( fa, یحیی (رحیم) صفوی, born 1952) is an
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
military commander who served as the chief commander 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 ...
.
Early life
Safavi was born in 1952 in the city of
Isfahan,
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 ...
.
Career
Safavi was one of the leaders of the
Iran–Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations S ...
. During the
US-led invasion of Afghanistan, he played a key role in the
uprising in Herat in November 2001, where American, Iranian and
Northern Alliance
The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( prs, جبهه متحد اسلامی ملی برای نجات افغانستان ''Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islāmi-yi Millī barāyi Nijāt ...
troops supported a local uprising against the
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...
.
He served as the deputy commander of
Islamic Revolutionary Guards 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 ...
until 1997 when he was appointed its commander, replacing
Mohsen Rezaee
Mohsen Rezaee ( fa, محسن رضایی, born Sabzevar Rezaee Mirgha'ed ( fa, سبزوار رضایی میرقائد) on 1 September 1954) is an Iranian conservative politician affiliated with the Resistance Front of Islamic Iran and senior mili ...
in 1997.
He was replaced as commander of the IRGC by
Mohammad Ali Jafari
Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari ( fa, محمدعلی جعفری, born 1 September 1957, also known as Aziz Jafari and Ali Jafari) is a former commander-in-chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps from 2007 to 2019. He was appointed by S ...
, former director of the Strategic Studies Center of the IRGC on 1 September 2007. Then he was appointed by the
Supreme Leader,
Ali Khamenei as his special military advisor.
Asset freeze
On 24 December 2006, Rahim Safavi was listed in
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737 was unanimously passed by the United Nations Security Council on 23 December 2006.
The resolution, sponsored by France, Germany and the United Kingdom, imposed sanctions against Iran for failing t ...
asking for his assets (among others') to be frozen because of alleged involvements in Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
See also
*
List of Iranian two-star generals since 1979
There are currently 12 two-star officers in the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran: four with the regular army (''Artesh'') background, seven who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and one with both backgrounds.
Although t ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Safavi, Yahya Rahim
1952 births
Living people
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel of the Iran–Iraq War
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps major generals
Recipients of the Order of Fath
University of Tabriz alumni
People from Isfahan Province