Major Shake-Up in Iran’s Top Security Council

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has undergone a major reshuffle under the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. Retired Major General Mohsen Rezaei has been appointed as the council’s secretary, while former secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr has been named as the Supreme Leader’s political adviser.

On Sunday (August 9), Mojtaba Khamenei confirmed Zolghadr’s appointment in a message. Around the same time, the office of President Masoud Pezeshkian said Rezaei had been nominated to head the Supreme National Security Council following Zolghadr’s resignation.

The 71-year-old Mohsen Rezaei served as commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from 1981 to 1996. He later held several key positions in the government.

Zolghadr, meanwhile, previously served as deputy commander of the IRGC. Both Rezaei and Zolghadr are known as hardliners and close loyalists of Iran’s Supreme Leader.