Hassan Firouzabadi

Following the death of Kavous Seyed-Emami in custody in 2018, Firouzabadi claimed that “Several years ago, some individuals came to Iran... In their possessions were a variety of reptile desert species like lizards, chameleons... We found out that their skin attracts atomic waves and that they were nuclear spies who wanted to find out where inside the Islamic Republic of Iran we have uranium mines and where we are engaged in atomic activities”. Several scientists dismissed his remarks as absurd.

He served as the Chief-of-Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces –the most senior military authority in Iran– from 1989 to 2016.

Firouzabadi had no military experience before he was appointed as the chief-of-staff, neither in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) nor the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (Artesh), and goes by the title Basiji. On 17 April 1995, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei granted him the rank of major general, the highest military rank practically available in Iran. According to a report published by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, he was credited with "husbanding the IRGC from a war-ravaged organization to a hybrid conventional-asymmetric military force overshadowing the still-lagging Artesh. He also oversaw a growing military industry that produced a wide range of products amid international sanctions, from ammunition to space rockets".