Ahmad Vahidi

Ahmad Vahidi (, born 27 June 1958) is an Iranian politician and former commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). He was Minister of Defense, having held the post from 3 September 2009 until 15 August 2013.

Early life and education
Vahidi was born on 27 June 1958 in Shiraz. His real name is Ahmad Shah Cheraghi (his nickname is Vahid).

He holds a bachelor's degree in electronics and a master's degree in industrial engineering. He received a PhD in strategic studies from Imam Sadegh University.

Career
Vahidi joined IRGC in 1979. He was made deputy to the then IRGC commander Mohsen Rezai for intelligence affairs in 1981. The same year he was also named commander of the Balaal base. In 1983, he joined the Quds Force, a unit of the IRGC that responsible for operations outside of Iran. He holds the rank of brigadier general.

Vahidi was appointed deputy minister of defense in 2005 after Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar became minister of defense. He was in office until 2009. In August 2009, he was appointed minister of defense by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and on 3 September 2009, the Majlis endorsed Vahidi as minister of defense with vote of 227 of 286. He received 79.3% of the votes of the members of the parliament. Vahidi's term ended on 15 August 2013 and Hossein Dehghan replaced him in the post.

Controversies
Vahidi has been wanted by Interpol since 2007 for his alleged participation in the bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 18 July 1994, in which 85 people died. Vahidi was serving as the commander of a special unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard known as the Quds Force when the attack occurred. He is one of five Iranians sought in the bombing. Iran denies that it was involved.

In June 2010, Vahidi was blacklisted by the U.S Government, a measure which is aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their supporters thereby isolating them from the U.S. financial and commercial systems.

In May 2011, Vahidi paid an official visit to Bolivia. Upon this event in June 2011, Bolivia apologized to Argentina for Ahmad Vahidi visiting the country, and announced that he would be leaving the country immediately.