| Ahmad Vahidi | |
|---|---|
| Minister of Defence | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office August 9, 2009 |
|
| President | Mahmoud Ahmadinejad |
| Preceded by | Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar |
| Deputy Minister of Defence | |
| In office August 9, 2005 – August 9, 2009 |
|
| President | Mahmoud Ahmadinejad |
| Preceded by | Ali Reza Asghari |
| Succeeded by | Asadollah Emami |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 June 1947 Shiraz, Iran |
| Nationality | Iranian |
| Religion | Shia Islam |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution |
| Years of service | 1980–[1] |
| Rank | General |
| Unit | Quds Force[2] |
Ahmad Vahidi (Persian: احمد وحیدی, born 28 June 1947) is an Iranian politician and former commander of the Revolutionary Guards.[1] He is the current Minister of Defense of Iran, having held the post since August 9, 2009.
|
Contents
|
He was born on June 28, 1947, in Mashhad. In 1980 he joined the Quds Force, a unit of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution that responsible for operations outside of Iran. His real name is Ahmad Shah Cheraghi (his nickname is Vahid).[citation needed] He was born in Shiraz.
He is wanted by Interpol for his alleged participation in the bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on July 18, 1994, in which 85 people died. He is one of five Iranians sought in the bombing.[3] Iran denies that it was involved.[4]
In June 2011 Bolivia apologized to Argentina for Ahmad Vahidi visiting the country, and announced that he would be leaving Bolivia immediately.[5]
In June 2010 Vahidi was blacklisted by the U.S Government, a measure which is aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their supporters thereby isolating them from the U.S. financial and commercial systems.[6]
Vahidi was appointed as Deputy Minister of Defense in 2005 after Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar became Minister of Defense. He was in office until 2009. In August 2009 he was designated Minister of Defense by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and on August 9, 2009, the Majlis endorsed Vahidi as Minister of Defense with vote of 227 of 56.[7] He received 79.3% of the votes of the Member of Parliaments.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar |
Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics 2009–present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| This article about an Iranian politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)