Hossein Dehghan

Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps

Dehghan served as a commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and in its air force.^[9][10] During the Islamic revolution, Dehghan took part in the occupation of the US embassy in Tehran.^[1] He left his hometown for Tehran and joined the IRGC shortly after the Iranian revolution in 1979.^[5][11][12] As commander of the IRGC in Tehran he took part and oversaw the suppression and execution of opponents to the newly formed Islamic Republic.^[1] His posts at the IRGC include commander of IRGC of Tehran (1980–1982), Isfahan, and Syria and Lebanon (1982–1983),^[5] and general manager of the IRGC's Cooperatives Foundation (1996).^[13][14] He was the commander of the IRGC's forces in Lebanon during the 1983 bombing of the American embassy in Beirut, 241 Americans were killed.^[2].^[1][15][11] During his time in Lebanon, he appointed Hezbollah commander Hassan Laqis as his bureau chief. According to Shapira, a scholar who specializes in Hezbollah, Dehghan and Laqis took part in the planning and carrying out of the attack on the US embassy.^[15][11]

During the Iran-Iraq war, he was among the leading and decision-making commanders of the IRGC along with Mohsen Rezaee, Rahim Safavi and Ali Shamkhani.^[16] In Syria and Lebanon he was the commander of the training corps of the IRGC.^[5] He was named the IRGC's air force deputy commander in 1986 and became its commander in April 1990.^[17] His tenure lasted until 1992. He was replaced by Mohammad Hossein Jalali in the post.^[17] Dehghani was named deputy chief of the IRGC Joint Staff in 1992.^[13] He later was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.^[13]

Political career and other activities

Next he served as deputy to the then defense minister, Ali Shamkhani, during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami from 1997 to 2003.^[13][18][19] In 2003, he held the post of acting defense minister.^[20] He was made Vice President of Iran and head of the martyrs foundation, "Bonyad Shahid", in 2005 and served as its president until July 2009.^{[21][13][14][22]} In addition, he served as an advisor to the former President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.^[14][23] From 2009 to 2010 he was the deputy to Ali Shamkhani in the Armed Forces Strategic Studies Center.^[13] Then he was appointed secretary of the Expediency Council's political, defense and security committee in 2010.^[9] He also served as an advisor to Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf.^[13] However, Dehghani distanced himself from Ahmedinejad in 2012 and joined Moderation and Development Party led by Hassan Rouhani.^[13]

He was nominated to head the defense ministry on 4 August 2013.^[24] He was approved by the Majlis and replaced Ahmad Vahidi in the post. Dehghani received 269 votes in favor and 10 votes against.^[25] Former Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi was named as Dehghani's advisor on 22 August.^[26]

He was a known hardliner and close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.^[27] In 2016, Dehghan advanced and signed a counterterrorism agreement with China.^[1][4] That same year, he negotiated an arms deal with Russia^[28] and refused to respond when parliament questioned about details on Iran's military cooperation as Russia conducted fly missions over Syria from Iran.^[29] This move was met with opposition by Larijani who accused Dehghan of "disrespecting parliament".^[29] Later, he announced to cut military cooperation with Russia.^[29] Dehghan also threatened to conduct military action against Saudi Arabia, except for holy places, if it did anything "ignorant".^[30]

On 1 August 2017, Dehghan announced that he would leave the defense ministry after the end of the first Rouhani government. He served as an advisor to Ali Khamenei.^[31] After the assassination of Qasem Soleimani and before Operation Martyr Soleimani, Ali Khamenei, along with Dehghan as his chief military advisor, had made preparations to strike US forces back as revenge.^[32] In a CNN interview, Dehghan expressed that the "only thing that can end this period of war is for the Americans to receive a blow that is equal to the blow they have inflicted" while ensuring to target US military bases.^[33][32]

He announced that he was running in the 2021 Iranian presidential election.^[34] Many critics opposed his candidacy, warning that it would lead to increasing military interventions within Iran's political structure.^[35]

During the 2026 Iran war it was reported he was a candidate to be the new intelligence minister, but under direct pressure from the IRGC, his nomination was rejected, as Vahidi insists the IRGC decide about all critical and sensitive leadership positions.^[36] On 19 March 2026 Iran International reported that he became the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council,^[37][35] which later came out as false, when Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr became the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council on the 24 March 2026.^[38][39] Iran International corrected it later.^{[40][41][42][43]}

US and Europe

In an interview with The Guardian as an Iranian presidential candidate in 2021, Dehghan accused the US of being untrustworthy, claiming that the policies of the Biden and Trump administration are similar by "not lifting the oppressive sanctions against Iranian people and "continuing to block Iran oil revenue in foreign banks while we need the money to fight against the coronavirus pandemic." He further added that all of these are a continuation of Trumpism.^[48] He also dismissed Europe's role as a mediator between Iran and the US stating that it had "no independent stance from America".^[48]

Nuclear program

During his time as defence minister, Dehghan consistently maintained his opposition of including Iran's nuclear program in international negotiations.^[35] In 2017, he dismissed the United Nations' concern of Iran violating the Iran nuclear deal during a missile test and said that Iran would "not allow foreigners to interfere in our defence affairs".^[49]