Mohammad Ali Jafari

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed IRGC Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari as head of the IRGC in 2007, likely due to his superior experience with asymmetric and irregular warfare and leadership of the IRGC Strategic Studies Center. Jafari immediately re-structured the IRGC according to what was known as the “mosaic doctrine.” Its purpose was to allow the IRGC to help the regime survive decapitation attacks by Israel and/or the US through dispersion and increased capability to control the population in the event of the loss of senior civilian and military leadership to such an attack. Jafari’s political activities began when he participated in protests in Tehran as an architecture student at the height of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He joined the paramilitary Basij Organization and then the IRGC in 1982 at the outset of the Iran-Iraq War. Jafari held a number of leadership positions during the Iran-Iraq War and formed key relationships with other IRGC members who would rise in the ranks later alongside him. He commanded the Najaf-e Ashraf, Nasr, and Quds Bases, as well as the Karbala Operational Base. After the war, Jafari served the IRGC Ground Forces Deputy Commander, the IRGC Joint Staff Operations Deputy, and then as the IRGC Ground Forces Commander from 1992 to 2000, when he took command of the Sarallah Base. He became the head of the newly-formed IRGC Strategic Studies Center in 2005. The Center began to develop theories on how to counter “velvet revolutions” within Iran and other internal threats to regime ideology and security under his leadership. Jafari reports to the Armed Forces General Staff, but also directly to the Supreme Leader. He is a member ex officio of the Supreme National Security Council.

Show Less

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed IRGC Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari as head of the IRGC in 2007, likely due to his sup... Show More