Hossein Taeb

Hossein Taeb headed the IRGC's Intelligence Organisation for over thirteen years (2009–2022), making him one of the most feared figures in Iran's security apparatus. A student of Ali Khamenei and wartime associate of Mojtaba Khamenei in the Habib Battalion, he combined IRGC and MOIS experience spanning from the 1988 massacre of political prisoners through the chain murders of 1998 to the suppression of the 2009 Green Movement and 2022 Mahsa Amini protests. He was dismissed in June 2022 following a series of Israeli intelligence successes inside Iran, including the assassination of nuclear scientists, and a foiled plot against Israeli tourists in Turkey that exposed IRGC-IO networks. He was replaced by General Mohammad Kazemi.