Iran’s Ahmad Vahidi, wanted for bombings of Jewish center, Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, appointed IRGC chief

Then-Iranian interior minister and current Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Ahmad Vahidi speaks during a press conference in Tehran on March 4, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)
Then-Iranian interior minister and current Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Ahmad Vahidi speaks during a press conference in Tehran on March 4, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

Senior Iranian military officer Ahmad Vahidi has been appointed the new chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, after the previous commander, Mohammad Pakpour, was killed by Israel and the US on Saturday.

Vahidi, who formerly served as the head of the IRGC’s extraterritorial Quds Force, is suspected of being behind the bombings of the Israeli embassy and AMIA Jewish community center in Argentina in the 1990s.

In 1992, a bomb attack on the Israeli embassy left 29 dead. Two years later, a truck loaded with explosives drove into the AMIA Jewish center and detonated, leaving 85 dead and 300 injured.

Argentina and Israel have long suspected Hezbollah carried out the AMIA attack at Iran’s request, and in 2024, over three decades after the deadly attacks, an Argentine court definitively blamed Iran for the attack, declaring it a “terrorist state.”

Vahidi has been wanted by Interpol since 2007 for his role in the bombings, to little effect, but following the court ruling, Argentina reupped its request for Interpol to arrest him.

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