General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran

General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: ستاد کل نیروهای مسلح جمهوری اسلامی ایران, romanized: Setad-e Kol-e Niruha-ye Mosallah-e Jomhuri-ye Islami-ye Iran) is the most senior military body in Iran, to implement policy, monitor and coordinate activities within the Armed Forces.^[5]

Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran
ستاد کل نیروهای مسلح جمهوری اسلامی ایران (Persian)
Seal of the General Staff of the Armed Forces
Flag of the General Staff of the Armed Forces
Incumbent Major General Mohammad Bagheri since 28 June 2016
Armed Forces of Iran
Type	Chief of the General Staff
Reports to	Military office of the Supreme Leader[1]
Appointer	Supreme Leader of Iran
Formation	June 1988[2][3][4]
First holder	Hassan Firouzabadi
Deputy	Brigadier general Aziz Nasirzadeh

Iran's two existing separate militaries, the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (Arteš) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (Sepāh) are formally subordinate to the general staff, as well as Iran's sole national police force, the Law Enforcement Command.^[5]

The organization was set up in 1989 to enhance cooperation and counterbalance the rivalry between the armed forces and is directly decreed by Supreme Leader of Iran, while the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics, responsible for planning, logistics and funding of the armed forces is part of the executive branch under the President of Iran.^[5]

List of Chiefs

No.	Portrait	Chief	Took office	Left office	Time in office	Defence branch	Deputies	Ref.
Chief of the Headquarters of the General Command of Forces
–		Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1934–2017) Acting	July 1988	1988	0 years	none	none	–
1		Mousavi, Mir-HosseinMir-Hossein Mousavi (born 1942)	1988	1989	0–1 years	none	Hassan Firouzabadi (1988–1989)	–
Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces
1		Firouzabadi, HassanMajor general Hassan Firouzabadi (1951–2021[6])	26 September 1989	28 June 2016	26 years, 276 days	Basij	Mohammad Forouzandeh (1989–1993) Ali Sayad Shirazi (1993–1999) Gholam Ali Rashid (1999–2016)	–
2		Bagheri, MohammadMajor general Mohammad Bagheri (born c. 1960)	28 June 2016	Incumbent	8 years, 59 days	IRGC	Abdolrahim Mousavi (2016–2017) Ataollah Salehi (2017–2019) Mohammad-Reza Gharaei Ashtiani (2019–2021) Aziz Nasirzadeh (2021–2024)	–

See also

• Iran portal

• Joint Staff of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
• Joint Staff of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army

References

1. Rouhi, Mahsa (2013). "Iran". In Hassner, Ron E. (ed.). Religion in the Military Worldwide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 153. ISBN 978-1-107-51255-9.
2. Cordesman, Anthony H. (1999). Iran's Military Forces in Transition: Conventional Threats and Weapons of Mass Destruction. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. p. 276. ISBN 0-275-96529-5.
3. Byman, Daniel; Chubin, Shahram; Ehteshami, Anoushiravan; Green, Jerrold (2001). "Preface". In Byman, Daniel; Chubin, Shahram; Ehteshami, Anoushiravan; Green, Jerrold D. (eds.). Iran's Security Policy in the Post-Revolutionary Era. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. pp. iii–iv. ISBN 0-8330-2971-1. JSTOR 10.7249/mr1320osd.2. MR-1320-OSD.
4. Eisenstadt, Michael (2002). "The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran: An Assessment". In Rubin, Barry; Keaney, Thomas A. (eds.). Armed Forces in the Middle East: Politics and Strategy. Abingdon, Oxon: Frank Cass Publishers. p. 240. ISBN 0-7146-8245-4.
5. Forozan, Hesam (2016). The Military in Post-Revolutionary Iran: The Evolution and Roles of the Revolutionary Guards. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. pp. 51–53. ISBN 978-1-138-91302-8.
6. "Iran supreme leader's senior military advisor Firouzabadi dies". Al Arabiya English. Retrieved 3 September 2021.