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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly publication.
Israel killed a number of of Iran’s high generals and scientists in a devastating large-scale assault that pushed the Center East into a brand new battle.
Main Basic Mohammad Bagheri
As chief of employees of Iran’s armed forces, Bagheri was the nation’s most senior navy commander.
He was born in 1960 and took part within the seizure of the US embassy as a college scholar in 1979 and joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) through the Iran-Iraq battle, in keeping with the Washington Institute for Close to East Coverage think-tank.
After a protracted profession in navy intelligence, he was plucked from the shadows by Iran’s supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and put answerable for the armed forces basic employees in 2016. He had sanctions imposed on him by the US in 2019 as one of many “unelected officers who encompass Iran’s supreme chief”.
Main Basic Hossein Salami
Salami, 65, had been commander-in-chief of the IRGC, Iran’s main navy pressure, since 2019. He has repeatedly deployed fierce rhetoric in opposition to Israel and the US, saying final month Iran would “open the gates of hell” if attacked.
Salami joined the guard in 1980, finally commanding its air forces. He was put below sanctions by the UN in 2006 and the US in 2007 for involvement in Iran’s nuclear programme.
He grew to become deputy commander in 2009 and was elevated to commander a decade later. After a US drone strike killed an IRGC chief in 2020, Salami threatened retaliation and shortly launched missiles at two bases housing US troops in Iraq.
Final yr, Salami mentioned Iran’s first-ever direct strike on Israel created “a brand new equation” within the area.
Ali Shamkhani
Shamkhani served as Iran’s high safety official and a senior adviser to Khamenei. He held the position of secretary of the Supreme Nationwide Safety Council for a decade till his dismissal in 2023, representing Tehran at talks with Saudi Arabia that yr that led to the tip of a seven-year rift and the restoration of diplomatic ties.
Main Basic Gholamali Rashid
Rashid, born in 1953, served as deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces for 17 years, till 2016. He then grew to become commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters, a strategic centre tasked with planning and coordinating joint navy operations amongst Iran’s armed forces. Rashid was sanctioned by the US as a member of Khamenei’s “internal circle” in 2019 and by the EU final yr for serving to provide drones to Russia in its battle on Ukraine.
Fereydoon Abbasi
Born in 1958, Abbasi was a former head of the Atomic Vitality Group of Iran and member of the IRGC. He was injured in an assassination try by Israel in 2010, the place a motorcyclist connected a bomb to his automobile. He was put below sanctions by the UN in 2007 for involvement in “nuclear or ballistic missile actions” and by the US for engaged on uranium enrichment in 2012.
He held a PhD in nuclear physics and was a “laser specialist” and “professional in nuclear isotope separation”, in keeping with the US state division. He had been a professor at Shahid Beheshti College.
Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi
Tehranchi, born in 1965 in Tehran, was a theoretical physicist and president of the Islamic Azad College in Tehran, and a professor at Shahid Beheshti College.
