As President Donald Trump’s deadline approaches for Iran to decide whether to extend a two-week ceasefire between the two countries, attention is increasingly turning to not just Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, but a shadowy Revolutionary Guard commander with a long history of terror, repression and hard-line ideology.
Ahmed Vahidi, who was recently promoted to the top of Iran’s military’s elite paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is emerging as one of the most powerful figures in Iran and analysts say he is one of the key figures who could decide whether Tehran resumes fighting or continues negotiations.
“By any measure, Vahidi is viewed as a radical even among the regime’s hardline elite, and his rise is a warning that Tehran’s war machine is now calling the shots,” foreign policy analyst and journalist Lisa Daftari told Fox News Digital.
Daftali added: “Having a man with such a bloody and murderous record at the top of the Revolutionary Guards confirms that the regime does not relent under pressure. Rather, it doubles down on those whose careers have been based on hostage-taking, assassinations and domestic repression. By any standard, Vahidi is considered a radical even among the regime’s hardline elite, and his rise is a warning that Tehran’s war machine is now calling the shots.”
Trump’s Iran doomsday warning adds to strike threats sweeping US
Why it matters: Analysts say Vahidi’s rise could make the difference between Iran moving towards peace or sliding deeper into conflict. For the United States, if a hardline figure with ties to terror networks now helps call the shots in Iran, it means greater risks to its military, allies and global stability.
Read it on the Fox News app
Ahmed Vahidi was recently promoted to the top of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the elite paramilitary force in Iran’s military, and is emerging as one of the most powerful men in Iran.
(Getty Images)
Vahidi’s rise comes at a time when Iran’s formal political institutions appear weaker than ever.
Experts describe today’s Islamic Republic as a system where informal networks and personal relationships are more important than official titles.
Benham bin Talebulu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, described Iran as “a system of people, not laws, but a system whose success depends on institutionalizing its power,” with decisions increasingly being made by Revolutionary Guard figures rather than the civilian government.
Beni Sabti, an Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Vahidi may now be more influential than Knesset Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf or even Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei.
“In my opinion, even if they are coordinated, he is now more dominant. This is not the time for internal competition,” Sabti said, adding that Vahidi was the only person to meet face-to-face with the new supreme leader.
Vance heads to Pakistan for high-stakes Iran talks, ‘fragile’ crumbling ceasefire
Long before the world knew the name Qasem Soleimani, Vahidi was among those who helped build the infrastructure for Iran’s terror operations abroad.
Long before the world knew the name Qassem Soleimani, Vahidi was among those who helped build the infrastructure for Iran’s terror operations abroad. Qasem Soleimani, the longtime commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, was killed in a 2020 U.S. drone strike.
He served as commander of the Quds Force in the 1990s before Soleimani took over the elite force, which was responsible for overseas operations, covert operations and support for proxy groups.
Analysts say Vahidi played a central role in establishing Iran’s network of terrorist allies in the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon.
“Ahmed Vahidi personifies the most radical wing of the Islamic Republic,” Daftali told Fox News Digital. “As Qassem Soleimani’s predecessor in the Quds Force, he helped Tehran build its terror infrastructure overseas.”
Sabti said Vahidi was among the first generation of Iranian operatives who established ties with Lebanese militant groups before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Some reports suggest he was trained at a camp in southern Lebanon linked to Palestinian and Lebanese factions, helping to lay the groundwork for Iran’s alliance with the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
Analysts and Western governments have linked Vahidi to some of the deadliest attacks carried out by Iranian-backed networks over the past four decades.
While serving as commander of the Quds Force from 1988 to 1998, he was implicated in the 1983 Beirut military camp bombing that killed 241 U.S. service members, the 1996 Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia, and the 2008 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.
Vance warned that if ceasefire breaks down, Iran will ‘find out’ that Trump ‘is not a man to mess around with’
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was protected by NOPO’s elite unit after his father was assassinated on February 28 during a US-Israeli attack on his compound in Tehran.
Daftari noted that Vahidi “has been accused by Argentinian prosecutors of involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA (Argentine Israeli Mutual Aid Association) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.” Eighty-five people were killed in the explosion.
Argentine investigators and courts have also linked Vahidi to the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, although an Interpol red notice issued against him was specifically for his alleged involvement in the 1994 AMIA bombing.
Argentina focused on Vahidi again after President Javier Milley’s government designated the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization in April and named him by name.
In announcing the move, the Argentine government said red notices remained in place against several Iranian officials, “including former Defense Minister Ahmed Vahidi, who was recently appointed to lead the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
Vahidi is subject to multiple sanctions from the United States and the European Union. The sanctions severely limit his ability to travel, transfer funds or conduct international business.
Washington first imposed sanctions on him in 2010 over his links to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs. Vahidi was redesignated in 2022 on charges of being “responsible or complicit as an Iranian government official, or responsible for ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing the commission of serious human rights violations committed on or after June 12, 2009, against persons in Iran, Iranian citizens or residents, or family members of such persons, regardless of whether such violations occurred in Iran.”
Following Mahesa Amini’s death, the United States reappointed him in 2022 under Executive Order 13553, when he served as Interior Secretary and oversaw the regime’s response to nationwide protests.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Vahidi was sanctioned for orchestrating internet blackouts and commanding Iran’s Law Enforcement Command (NAJA) during the crackdown.
The EU first imposed sanctions on him in 2008 and imposed parallel sanctions in 2022 over the use of live ammunition, arbitrary detentions of protesters and journalists, and violent suppression of demonstrations.
Human rights groups accuse the Iranian authorities of using live ammunition, mass arrests and torture against protesters, resulting in the deaths of more than 30,000 people.
Yigal Carmon, founder and director of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), warned: “Under his leadership, the West can expect more of these crimes against Jews and non-Jews.”
Pakistani general says Iranian diplomacy remains ‘active’ despite US blockade, failed talks
Experts say Vahidi is not just another hardliner but one of the most extreme figures in Iran’s already radical ruling elite.
Sabti warned that Vahidi’s growing influence could make Tehran less likely to agree to a real ceasefire.
“He brings more radicalism to the system and may not want to stop the war because it is in the interest of the Revolutionary Guards to continue the war,” Sabti said.
One of Vahidi’s biggest concerns is that even if Iran agrees to a ceasefire, he may view it only as an opportunity to regroup.
That concern has become more urgent as Trump’s deadline approaches.
Click here to download the Fox News app
Iranians react after a ceasefire was announced in Ngarab Square in Tehran, Iran, on April 8, 2026.
Analysts say if Vahidi is indeed the one increasingly calling the shots in Iran, the key question is not whether Iran wants a ceasefire but whether the Revolutionary Guards commander believes continued confrontation is more in his interests.
“It would be a grave mistake to believe him. He is in the ‘Death to America’ camp,” Carmon said.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment.
Original source of the article: Who is Ahmed Wahidi? Iran’s new IRGC chief linked to global attacks and ‘Death to America’ ideology
