Abbas Aghazamani

Abbas Aghazamani
عباس آقازمانی
Aghazamani at the first IRGC parade in Tehran, 1979
1st Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
In office
2 June 1980 – 27 June 1980
Preceded byAbbas Duzduzani
Succeeded byMorteza Rezaee
Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan
In office
1981–1984
Appointed byRuhollah Khomeini
Personal details
Born1939 (age 86–87)
Tehran, Iran
PartyIslamic Nations Party
Alma materUniversity of Tehran
Military service
Allegiance Iran
Branch/service IRGC
Years of service
1979–1981
Battles/warsIran–Iraq War

Abbas Aghazamani (Persian: عباس آقازمانی; born 1939), known by his nom de guerre Abu Sharif, is a retired Iranian military officer, diplomat and politician who was one of the founders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and briefly served as its commander-in-chief in 1980.[1][2] He was subsequently Iran's ambassador to Pakistan from 1981 to 1984.[3]

Early life and activism

Aghazamani was born in 1939 in Tehran and trained as a schoolteacher.[1] He became politically active in the 1960s and joined the Islamic Nations Party, an underground Islamist group that sought to overthrow the Pahlavi dynasty; he was arrested by SAVAK in 1965 and imprisoned for about two years.[4] From the late 1960s he received guerrilla training at Palestinian camps in Lebanon, where he adopted the nom de guerre "Abu Sharif" and worked with Fatah.[1] He was a graduate in Islamic law of the University of Tehran.[1]

In 1978 he joined the group protecting Ruhollah Khomeini during his exile at Neauphle-le-Château in France, and returned to Iran shortly before the Iranian Revolution of February 1979.[5]

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

After the revolution Aghazamani helped organize the armed revolutionary forces that were merged in 1979 to form the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He became a member of its command council and its first operations commander,[1] and is regarded as the corps' "first official operational commander".[6] Appointed commander-in-chief by President Abolhassan Banisadr and confirmed by Khomeini, he held the post briefly in June 1980 before resigning after disagreements with Banisadr; he was succeeded by Morteza Rezaee.[2] During the early Iran–Iraq War he served as a commander on Iran's western front.[4]

Later life

In 1981 Khomeini appointed Aghazamani as Iran's ambassador to Pakistan, a post he held until 1984.[3] He later pursued religious studies at the Qom Seminary and spent extended periods in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he engaged in religious activities. As of the 2020s he resides in Pakistan.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Pasdaran – Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  2. 1 2 Forozan, Hesam (2015). The Military in Post-Revolutionary Iran: The Evolution and Roles of the Revolutionary Guards. Routledge. Table 2.1: Commander-in-Chief of the Sepah Since 1979, p. 59. ISBN 9781317430742.
  3. 1 2 ابوشریف: به من ظلم شده است [Abu Sharif: I have been wronged]. Tarikh-e Irani (in Persian). 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  4. 1 2 گفتگو با ابوشریف از اولین فرماندهان سپاه [Interview with Abu Sharif, one of the first IRGC commanders]. Entekhab (in Persian). 9 July 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  5. ↑ ویژه‌نامه رمز عبور ۴. Iran (in Persian). 13 September 2010. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  6. ↑ O'Hern, Steven (2012). Iran's Revolutionary Guard: The Threat That Grows While America Sleeps. Potomac Books. pp. 18, 22–23. ISBN 978-1597977012.
  7. ↑ مسیر سبز در حراست از انقلاب. Islamic Republic News Agency (in Persian). 22 April 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
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