Iran Names New Security Chief Following Attack on Top Official

Iran Appoints New Head of Supreme National Security Council

The Iranian government has named Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr as the new head of the country’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), succeeding Ali Larijani who was killed in a US-Israeli air strike earlier this month. The appointment was announced on Tuesday by a deputy of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

The SNSC, formally chaired by Pezeshkian, coordinates security and foreign policy efforts and includes representatives from top military, intelligence, and government officials, as well as Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. Zolghadr will take on the role of chairing the council.

Zolghadr has a long history of service in Iran’s military and government. He served as head of the IRGC’s joint staff for eight years and later became deputy commander-in-chief of the elite force. In 2005, he was appointed deputy interior minister for security and police under then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Since 2023, Zolghadr has held the position of secretary of the Expediency Council, a powerful body that plays an advisory and mediating role in Iran’s power structures. His new appointment consolidates the IRGC’s influence in Iranian politics amid uncertainty regarding decision-making at the top of the system.

Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since succeeding his father as supreme leader in early March. Larijani, a prominent non-clerical figure in Iranian politics, was killed last Tuesday in a US-Israeli air strike that also affected global energy markets and the world economy.

Source: Al Jazeera