Ismail Qaani was appointed as the successor to Qassem Soleimani as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force Commander, after Soleimani was killed near Baghdad Airport on 3 January 2020. After two weeks, Mohammad Hejazi was appointed as Qaani ‘s successor and deputy commander of the Quds Force.
Who is Mohammad Hejazi?
Seyed Mohammad Hossein-Zadeh Hejazi was born in Isfahan. He is one of the leaders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He has been a member of the Revolutionary Guards since the beginning of the Revolution in 1979.
Mohammed Hejazi started suppressing opponents in the Iranian provinces of Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan after the Velayat-e Faqih (mullahs’ regime) came to power in Iran and sought to suppress its political opponents.
He also served in Khomeini’s war machine during the Iran-Iraq War and played an important role in the deployment of troops, including students to the southern front of the war, many of whom served as “cannon fodder” to clean up the minefields on the Iraqi side in Khomeini’s military operations.
Hejazi like other “blood thirty” persons of the regime is believed to hold a fake Ph.D. in National Defense from the Department of Strategic Management and is a member of the faculty called Imam Hussein University.
Other important positions that Hejazi has held include:
– Head of the Headquarters of the Second District Corps of the country,
– Substitute of the Fourth District Corps Command of the country,
– Substitute for Salman’s Operation Headquarters on the Middle and Western Fronts,
– Substitute of the Commander of Quds Force Corps Command base until the end of the Iran-Iraq War,
– Assistant Coordinator of Mobilization,
– Humanitarian deputy of mobilization,
– Basij Command for 10 years from 1998 to 2008
– Presidency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in 2008
– Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC in 2009
– Mohammed Ali Jafari, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps in July 2009, nominated Mohammad Hejazi while keeping the position of the “Commander in Chief of the IRGC” as the successor of the Sar-Allah IRGC base.
– Deputy Chief of Staff of Industrial Research of the Armed Forces General Staff from 2010 to 2015
– Mohammed Hejazi has also been involved in terrorist activities for a long time within the Quds Force in Lebanon.
– On 29 August 2019, Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus announced that Hejazi was in command of the Quds Force in Lebanon and was responsible for the missile production program in this country.
Mohammad Hejazi’s Interference in the Elections of 2005
The Basij, led by Mohammad Hejazi, played an effective role in propaganda for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 Presidential election.
One month after the election, at the commemoration ceremony of the commander of the Basij in Tehran, he said, “Today, the gap between the government and the people has diminished, and this gives us hope that we will be able to thwart enemy conspiracies.”
The role of Mohammad Hejazi in suppressing the 2009 demonstrations
Mohammed Ali Jafari, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps in July 2009, nominated Mohammad Hejazi while keeping the position of the “Commander in Chief of the IRGC” as the successor of the Sar-Allah IRGC base.
According to the regime’s introductions, the area of activity of the Sar-Allah IRGC base involved keeping the security in large Tehran. This base had played a key role in suppressing the post-election protests and events in 2009.
Following a bloody crackdown on the protests in 2009, an announcement was issued with the “very secret” stamp and it was announced that it had been sent from the Sar-Allah base to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.
The letter ordered hospitals not to hand over medical records of injured and killed people in the protests to their families.
EU sanctions Mohammad Hejazi
Mohammad Hejazi’s role in suppressing protests and human rights abuses has led to his inclusion on the EU sanctions list since September 2011. Due to repressive actions, the EU sanctioned Mohammad Hejazi on 10 October 2011.
Under the embargo, all of Hejazi’s assets in Europe will be confiscated. A statement from the European Union pointed out that Mohammad Hejazi was the head of the Tehran-based Sar-Allah group and the former head of the Basij.
US sanctions against Mohammad Hejazi
Earlier, on 25 October 2007, the US Treasury Department, under the executive order 13382, sanctioned Mohammad Hejazi, for serving as a former commander of the mobilization forces along with four other IRGC commanders and two main entities of the IRGC and the Ministry of Defense and the support of the armed forces.
The sanctions also included nine entities affiliated with the IRGC, as well as Meli and Mellat banks and three individuals from the Aerospace Industries Organization.
Also, on 31 October 2017, the US Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on 12 individuals and 29 entities of the regime, one day after the CAATSA law came into force. The name of Mohammad Hejazi was also mentioned in these sanctions.
Source » irannewsupdate