Hossein Sheikholeslam

Hossein Sheikholeslam was one of the student leaders who seized the US Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, participating in the Iran hostage crisis. Following the revolution, he rose through the Foreign Ministry to serve 17 years as Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs — one of the most influential career positions in Iranian diplomacy. He was ambassador to Syria from 1998 to 2003, a period during which Hezbollah expanded its operations under Iranian direction. Sheikholeslam is credited by researchers as one of the figures involved in the co-founding of Lebanese Hezbollah in the early 1980s, coordinating between the IRGC and Lebanese Shia militias in the Bekaa Valley. He was an ally of Ali Khamenei and a consistent advocate for the resistance axis. He died of COVID-19 on March 26, 2020.