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Iran's New Defense Minister: Behind the 1983 Attack on the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut
(Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dr. Shimon Shapira - The newly-elected president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, has appointed Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan as the new defense minister. In the summer of 1982, Dehghan was sent to Lebanon where he served as commander of the training corps of the Revolutionary Guard and a year later was appointed commander of the Revolutionary Guard force in Lebanon. In September 1983, Hizbullah, with the help of the Revolutionary Guard headed by Dehghan, took over the Sheikh Abdullah barracks, the main base of the Lebanese army in the Beqaa Valley. It now became the Imam Ali barracks, the main headquarters of the Revolutionary Guard. From this headquarters, Iran controlled Hizbullah's military force and planned, along with Hizbullah, the terror attacks on the Beirut-based Multinational Force and against IDF forces in Lebanon. According to the U.S. Marine commander, the NSA intercepted the Iranian orders to strike on Sept. 26, 1983. It is difficult to imagine that such a directive would be transmitted without the knowledge of the Revolutionary Guards' commander, Hossein Dehghan. On Oct. 25, 1983, a Shiite suicide bomber detonated a water tanker at the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Marines; simultaneously, another Shiite suicide bomber blew up the French paratroopers' barracks in Beirut, killing 58 soldiers.