Yahya Rahim Safavi

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Yahya Rahim Safavi
1958 - Present

Place of birth	Iran
Allegiance	AGIR
Years of service	1981 - Present
Rank	Major General (Persian: سرلشکر)
Commands held	AGIR
Battles/wars	Iran-Iraq War

Major General (Persian: سرلشکر) Yahya Rahim Safavi (Persian: یحیى رحیم صفوی , born 1958) served as the Chief commander of the Sepah until September 1, 2007.

1 History
2 11 September allegations
3 Asset freeze
4 See also
5 Notes and references
6 External links

[edit] History

Rahim Safavi was one of the leaders of the Iraq-Iran War. Safavi is related to the Safavid dynasty of Persia^{[citation needed]} and Sheikh Safi-oddin Ardebili (a historic figure^{[citation needed]}).

He was replaced as commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) by Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, former director of the Strategic Studies Center of AGIR on September 1, 2007. Radio Farda, a radio news service run by Iranian exiles, reported that Safavi is thought to have become too openly sympathetic to the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad administration, when Iranian military officers are obliged to shun politics. According to Radio Free Europe, Radio Farda "quoted observers saying that Rahim-Safavi's almost partisan positions had caused unease or even rifts in the IRGC ranks, and the appointment is meant to resolve that."^[1]

[edit] 11 September allegations

On September 6, 2006 his allegations caused a sensation, because the Iranian Supreme Commander accused the Bush Administration and the Israeli security service Mossad of ordering the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington DC:

“	The events of September 11 were ordered by U.S. [officials] and Mossad so that they could carry out their strategy of pre-emption and warmongering and unipolarisation in order to dominate the Middle East	„

His comments were reported by the state-run news agency ISNA (the source of this citation is unreliable and there is no link to the main article in ISNA).
Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi said that Iran was the leading force of the "Islamic world".

“	The geographic heart of the Islamic world is in Mecca and Medina. But, the political heart of the Islamic world is in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the flag-bearer of the front of Islamic awakening and the fronts of the awakening of third world nations	„

.^[2]

[edit] Asset freeze

On 2006-12-24, Rahim Safavi was listed in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1737 asking for his assets (among others') to be frozen because of alleged involvements in Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.^[3]