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 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 ...

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 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 Security Council ...

. 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 (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

. 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 in 1997. He was replaced as commander of the IRGC by Mohammad Ali Jafari, former director of the Strategic Studies Center of the IRGC on 1 September 2007. Then he was appointed by 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 ...

as his special military advisor.

Asset freeze

On 24 December 2006, Rahim Safavi was listed in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737 asking for his assets (among others') to be frozen because of alleged involvements in Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

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

Early life

Career

Asset freeze

See also

References