Alireza Tangsiri, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday, was a veteran hardliner with a taste for fiery rhetoric who grasped better than many the strategic importance of the strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of the world’s oil and gas.
During naval exercises in the Gulf in January, Tangsiri said the Iranian revolution of 1979 represented “a turning point in the history of the Iranian nation and a new dawn for the awakening of the oppressed nations of the world”.
Like many senior officials of the IRGC, Tangsiri won his regime credentials as a young man during the bloody 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. He then received a series of promotions, eventually becoming the commander of the IRGC’s maritime force in 2018, where he pioneered the unconventional weapons that would allow Iran to project power and influence in the Persian Gulf and beyond.
According to the US Treasury, which sanctioned him in 2019 and in 2023, Tangsiri oversaw the IRGC Navy’s testing of cruise missiles and sat on the board of a company that developed armed drones. Both weapons could now be used to maintain the current blockade of the strait.
A third weapon strongly supported by Tangsiri was fast boats – light, manoeuvrable craft that can threaten civilian shipping but also, he hoped, evade the defence systems of modern warships.
Last week, Tangsiri dared the US to launch a ground assault on Kharg Island, Iran’s principal hub for oil exports, pointing out the effect such a move would have on oil prices. On Monday, said in a media post that Iran had “prepared the graves of child-killing aggressors”.
The head of the IRGC Navy intelligence directorate, Behnam Rezaei, was killed in the same strike on the port city of Bandar Abbas.
The commander of US central command, Adm Brad Cooper, said on Thursday that the killing of Tangsiri by Israel “makes the region safer”.
Israel Katz, Israel’s defence minister, said Tangsiri was responsible for the attacks that have blocked ships from crossing the strait of Hormuz and described the strike as a “message” to the IRGC: “[Israel] will hunt you down and eliminate you one by one.”
