Skip to Content
  • Analysis
  • Mohsen Rezaei: The Unlikely Peacemaker

    External Publication

    November 7, 2026

    Alex Vatanka
    Alex Vatanka

    Defense and Security, Great Powers in the Middle East, US Policy in the Middle East, Iran

    After decades of political setbacks, Iran’s former Revolutionary Guards commander has returned to the center of power. Is he an incidental beneficiary of war, or have observers underestimated him all along?

    In 1981, a 27-year-old revolutionary named Mohsen Rezaei was appointed commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The appointment was hardly unanimous. With the intervention of Ayatollah Khomeini’s son Ahmad, Rezaei got the job.

    Read More in Al Majalla

    Photo by NurPhoto via Getty Images

     


    The Middle East Institute (MEI) is an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit, educational organization. It does not engage in advocacy and its scholars’ opinions are their own. MEI welcomes financial donations, but retains sole editorial control over its work and its publications reflect only the authors’ views. For a listing of MEI donors, please click here.

    More Like This