Commanders of the Artesh

Commanders of the Artesh

***Working Copy***

Maj. Gen. (Sarlashgar/سرلشگر ) Ataollah Salehi

Salehi at officer school graduation 2007 (Mehr News)

Commander of the Artesh, from 2005 to the present. Preceded by Gen. Mohammad Salimi. 












Brig. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi (سرتيپ عبدالرحيم موسوی)

(Unknown)

Joint Chief of Staff for the Artesh from 2005 to the present. From an unknown period until 2008, he was the deputy coordinator for the Artesh. In 2008 he was appointed deputy commander to the Artesh and presumably still serves in that role. (1) (2) He succeeded Brig. Gen. Reza Ghiraei Ashtiani in this role. (3)













Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan (سرتيپ عحمد رضا پوردستن)

(Unknown probably Fars News)

Commander of the IRIA from 2008 until the present. He succeeded Brig. Gen. Hasssan Dadras in this role. (4)











Brig. Gen, Kiomars Heydari (سرتيپ کيومرث حيدری)

(Fars News)

Deputy commander of the IRIA from an unknown time until the present.








Vice Adm. Ali Shamkhani (دریابان علی شمخانی)

(Unknown, probably FN)

Commanded various IRGC units in the Khuzestan province during the Iran-Iraq war. He was promoted to the rank of Brig. Gen. in the IRIN in 1989. Between 1990 and 1997 he was commander of the IRIN and IRGCN, and from 1997 to 2005 he served as Minister of Defense under Pres. Khatami. During this period, in 1999, we was promoted to the rank of Maj. Gen. (aka, Vice Adm.). In 2001 he ran for president as an independent. From 2005 until the present, he served head of the Strategic Council for Foreign Relations. He also serves the head of the Center for Strategic Studies (it is unclear exactly which "CSS" he served as the head of as there are a number of them). (5)

Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari

(Unknown)

Serves as the commander of the IRIN at the present time.


















Brig. Gen. Hassan Shah Safi

(Unknown)

Serves as the commander of the IRIAF at the present time.

















Works Cited:
(1) Six New Appointments in Army. Accessed via: http://www.shiachat.com/forum/index.php?/topic/65329-imam-khamenei-ha-news/
(2) Army Commanders Reshuffled By Leader. Fars News. October 26th 2008. http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8706051132 
(3) ibd Shiachat 
(4) ibd Fars News, October 26th 2008 
(5) “علی شمخانی”. Persian Wikipedia. http://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/ http://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/