Early years Mousavi's military career began in 1979. In 2017 he was promoted from Brigadier General to Major General, and from August 2017 to June 2025, he served as the chief of staff of the Ground Forces.
2017–2026 In August 2017, he said that the "
martyrdom-seeking and
jihadi spirit of the Iranian people" made it impossible for the United States and its allies to attack Iran militarily. In January 2018 he referred to the United States as the "
Great Satan". That year he also said that his “greatest wish is the
annihilation of Israel.” In September 2019, he said that the United States is "like an animal that would chase after you if you run away, and would run away if you attack them." In January 2020, after warnings from U.S. President Donald Trump, he said that the United States lacked the “courage to initiate” a conflict with Iran. Mousavi said in April 2023 that Israel was "too small to be considered a threat to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” as reported by
Middle East Monitor. In May 2025 Mousavi dismissed comments by Israeli officials as "bluster", and said that "the Israeli leadership lacks the capacity to harm the greatness of Iran." On 13 June 2025,
Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei appointed Mousavi as the
chief of staff of the armed forces, following the killing of Mousavi's predecessor
Mohammad Bagheri in the
Twelve-Day War.
Sanctions In March 2023, Mousavi was sanctioned by the
U.S. Department of the Treasury's
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for serious
human rights abuses. It said that, in both the November 2019 economic protests and in protests following the
death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, troops under his command "used machine guns to fire indiscriminately into crowds of protestors". He was also listed on sanctions lists of the European Union, United Kingdom, and Australia for serious human rights abuses. ==Death==