Ahmad Vahidi

Ahmad Vahidi is IRGC operational chief demanding military spending from any sanctions relief; key obstacle to the mou. Ahmad Vahidi is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operational chief and the man whose endorsement determines whether any Iran deal holds. His faction suspended talks on 1 June after Trump amended the draft MoU. The IRGC-aligned Tasnim News Agency on 13 June declared the text still required review by relevant institutions, undercutting Trump's claim it was approved at the highest level of Iranian leadership. On 17 June 2026, Vahidi became the first named IRGC official to specify where the relief money would go: he publicly demanded that any released frozen assets be allowed to fund missiles and drones, handing Senate critics a quote against the $300bn reconstruction package.

ISW assessed that 60 days of resumed oil exports could yield approximately $10bn for reconstituting Iran's missile and drone programmes. Reuters reported on 5 July that Mojtaba Khamenei, Supreme Leader since March, was disfigured and suffered a serious leg injury in the airstrike that killed his father, with no public sighting in the four months since. Vahidi himself had been out of public view since going into hiding in early February, before resurfacing on 3 July beside Ali Khamenei's casket ahead of the state funeral, a reappearance that underlined his role as the figure holding Iran's military and negotiating tracks together while the Supreme Leader remains unseen. Vahidi served as Defence Minister from 2009 to 2013