- State affiliation · Iran
- Vigil category device · not official insignia
Identity provenance
State affiliation: Iran.
Vigil category device — drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role. Not an official insignia.
In brief
Iran's joint operational headquarters — described by the US government as responsible for operational command and control across both armed forces, and the voice that announces Iran's wartime operations; its public record shows it speaking for the Artesh and the Revolutionary Guard, not tasking either.
- Scope
- Structure, role, lineage and links. No subordinate records published.
- Subordination
- Subordination disputed
- Sources
- 4 on the record
- Record state
- Partial
- Broad area of activity
- Iran's whole force structure, in wartime
- Notable history
- The Central Headquarters began as the operational layer of the General Staff, stood up for war. The US Defense Intelligence Agency records that in 2016 it was separated from the General Staff as a standing command responsible for operational command and control, under Gholam Ali Rashid, who held it until he was killed on the opening day of the June 2025 war; his successor, Ali Shadmani, was killed within days, and Ali Abdollahi was reported to have been named to the post that month. In the 2026 war its spokesman has been the voice of Iran's operations as a whole — escalation warnings, the retaliation of 1–2 September, the declared end of operations against Israel on 8 June — while the Revolutionary Guard and the Artesh announce their own strike campaigns under their own names. On 10 August 2026 the Supreme Leader appointed Abdollahi chief of the General Staff and ordered the integration of the two bodies completed. No statute setting out the headquarters' authority has been published, and no successor commander is named.
- Strengths
- A joint headquarters that existed before the war and continued to speak for both forces after two of its commanders were killed — institutional continuity that the public record does establish.
- Limitations
- What the record does not establish is the thing its title suggests: no published order shows it tasking, redirecting or restraining a Guard or an Artesh unit, and the clearest documented restraint order of the war, on 8 April 2026, came through the national security council in the Supreme Leader's name. It must not be confused with the Air Defence Headquarters or the Guard's construction conglomerate that share its name.
Related organisations
- Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Institutionally linked to · as of 2026-10 · moderate confidence
The headquarters' spokesman announces operations and retaliation for "the armed forces" as a whole, and has used the name of the Guard's own numbered strike campaign. The Guard announces each wave of that campaign through its own public relations. No published order from this headquarters tasking, redirecting or restraining a Guard unit has been found, so the link is recorded as institutional and not as command.
- Artesh Institutionally linked to · as of 2026-10 · moderate confidence
The same relationship from the Artesh side. The Artesh claims its own drone strikes under its own operation name through its own public relations office, without reference to this headquarters. Joint command is documented only in air defence, through a separate headquarters.
Lineage & institutional history
Placed with the General Staff, where it began as the General Staff's wartime operational layer. The US Defense Intelligence Agency's 2019 report states that it was separated from the General Staff in 2016 as a standing independent command responsible for operational command and control; the Supreme Leader's decree of 10 August 2026 instructs the new chief of the General Staff to complete the integration of the two bodies. The relationship was separate on the first account and is being merged on the second; whether that integration is complete, and what the merged body is, is not published.
Key events
The Supreme Leader fills Iran's senior military posts by decree and orders the joint headquarters merged
In decrees published by his office, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei appoints Ali Abdollahi chief of the Armed Forces General Staff and Kioumars Heydari his deputy, names Ahmad Vahidi commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guard with Mostafa Izadi as deputy, Ali Azmaei commander of the Guard's navy and Hossein Taeb head of the Basij. The decrees instruct the new chief to complete the integration of the Armed Forces General Staff and the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, on directives attributed to the late Supreme Leader. Abdollahi had been reported as commander of the Central Headquarters since June 2025.
Quick actions
System access
Where this record connects into the rest of Vigil. Each row is here because this organisation actually reaches it.
Assessed as of — 2026-10 Last reviewed — 2026-10-04
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