Iran consolidates security apparatus, appoints veteran IRGC commander to key role

Tehran, Iran – Iran's Supreme Leader's office, run by Mojtaba Khamenei, announced a series of new appointments to key positions, including naming a veteran wartime commander and political figure to head the country's top security body.

Mohsen Rezaee, who served as commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for 16 years, including during the 1980s war with Iraq, was appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and the Supreme Leader's representative in the top decision-making body on Sunday.

Six new military positions were also formally filled on Monday, with Ali Abdollahi, head of Iran's joint war command, appointed as chief of staff of the armed forces and Ali Ozmaei named as commander of the IRGC Navy. Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi was also confirmed as commander-in-chief of the IRGC “with the rank of major general,” officially succeeding Mohammad Pakpour, who was killed in the opening strikes of the US-Israel war on Iran in late February.

Sina Azodi, an assistant professor of Middle East politics at George Washington University, said the appointments indicate no sign of easing in negotiations with the US. “There is little doubt that Khamenei, Vahidi, and the IRGC leadership all share the view that continuing resistance to the US is strategically necessary,” Azodi told Al Jazeera.

He said Rezaee brings deep institutional experience and considerable authority over both senior IRGC commanders and rank-and-file members. “His appointment therefore seems aimed at enhancing internal cohesion, reinforcing the leadership's control over the organization, and leveraging the experience of a figure who helped shape the IRGC into the military and political institution it is today,” Azodi added.

Shift with “strategic” implications

Rezaee previously served as secretary of the Expediency Council, another senior state arbitration body, as he increasingly moved into politics and macroeconomics after the end of the Iraq war, which killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The 71-year-old also helped develop the country's long-term development plan and was given senior economic coordination powers during Ebrahim Raisi's presidency from 2021 to 2024. However, he has never held elected office, despite launching four unsuccessful presidential bids.

Rezaee returned to uniform during the current conflict, becoming a military adviser to the supreme leader just over a week after Mojtaba Khamenei replaced his assassinated father, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war. Since then, he has delivered defiant and resilient messages toward the US, Israel, and regional parties through media interviews and online posts.

Rezaee also voiced opposition to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the US in June, which temporarily lifted the naval blockade and suspended oil sanctions to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He argued that his views aligned closely with those of Mojtaba Khamenei, who ultimately approved the MoU despite reservations. “I ask friends who oppose negotiations to wait — the Americans will destroy it themselves and will not let it lead to any outcome,” he said in early July, just before the deal was suspended after attacks resumed.

Last week, he said the US must change its behavior or face serious risks and casualties for its forces. Iran “will never allow the opening of a second corridor in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

According to state media, 12 of the 13 voting members of Iran's Supreme National Security Council supported the MoU, with ultra-conservative Saeed Jalili the sole dissenter. But some hardline lawmakers, media, and supporters of the Islamic Republic have criticized the deal, arguing the strait should not have been reopened until the US made further concessions.

The SNSC brings together the president, foreign ministry, armed forces, and Iran's security and intelligence organizations, and coordinates communications with the supreme leader's office, which must give final approval for decisions.

Local media in recent days reported that Rezaee could soon take the top security position, with some sources suggesting President Masoud Pezeshkian opposed the appointment by initially refusing to accept the resignation of former security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr.

Zolghadr — himself a veteran IRGC member and a relatively hardline but pragmatic figure, albeit with less seniority and political connections than Rezaee — was eventually replaced. But he was immediately appointed as a political adviser to Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the war began.

An official from the IRGC's Basij paramilitary force said this week that state media would soon release new photos of the supreme leader taken after the war to refute US and Israeli claims that he may have been seriously wounded in the February 28 airstrike that killed his father and other senior commanders.

State-linked Mehr news agency this week reposted an old, undated video of Khamenei, showing him speaking to a group of clerics and followers at a meeting. Pezeshkian also said on Monday that he had just held a seven-hour meeting with Khamenei, during which the supreme leader emphasized “unity.”

According to an editorial by Nournews, a news outlet affiliated with the national security council, Rezaee's appointment signals the start of a broader “strategic restructuring” in line with Iran's new wartime circumstances. The editorial dismissed suggestions that Zolghadr was removed due to failure or dissatisfaction, or that the government opposed the appointment, adding that Rezaee could better integrate military, diplomatic, economic, and energy policies to overcome “fragmented management.”

“The central issue is not that one secretary leaves and another arrives, but how consequential the steps taken by the SNSC secretariat will be in this new phase,” Nournews wrote.

Analysts noted that Zolghadr was close to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliament speaker and head of the negotiating team with the US, so his replacement could be an attempt to curb Ghalibaf's growing influence. But Ghalibaf was among the senior officials who posted congratulatory messages to Rezaee on Monday — alongside Vahidi and newly reappointed judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei.

Vahidi, one of Iran's most powerful figures today, said Rezaee's presence on the council could “boost strategic coordination between the battlefield and diplomacy, as well as economic and political security, with a resistance approach and hope-generating governance.” Iran's Foreign Ministry also congratulated Rezaee but emphasized the importance of institutions in the Islamic Republic. “The whole world has seen clearly over the past year and a half that our country is a country of institutions, not individuals. This is precisely the secret to the Islamic Republic's survival and victory in these challenging conditions,” spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told reporters at a Monday press briefing.

Reactions to the appointment

Israel reacted sharply to the appointment, pointing out that Rezaee — along with Vahidi — is subject to an Interpol red notice over alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of the Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 85 people. “The Iranian regime worships terrorism, rewards its masterminds, and promotes them to the highest levels of power,” Israel's Foreign Ministry declared.

Following the appointment, some Iranian social media users recalled controversial comments by Rezaee that have made headlines over the years. In one instance in July 2015, months before Iran signed a landmark deal with world powers to lift sanctions in exchange for nuclear limits, Rezaee suggested being ready for a US ground attack on Iranian soil. “If the Americans want to look at Iran with ill intent or think of a military attack, they can be sure that in the first week we will capture at least 1,000 Americans as prisoners,” he told state television. “Then, to free each one of them, they would have to pay several billion dollars, which could solve many of our economic problems.”

Shortly after the appointment was announced, state television aired a historical segment with footage of Rezaee during the Iraq war, describing him as a commander with “strong military logic.” Many hardliners in Tehran also expressed satisfaction with the change at the security council as a hardline figure unafraid of military confrontation took charge, with some users using this to attack Pezeshkian's deal-supporting government. “After it became clear that the supreme leader chose Mohsen Rezaee as his representative on the council, the other thing that became clear is that Pezeshkian had long opposed the leader over replacing Zolghadr with Rezaee,” hardline lawmaker Amirhossein Sabeti, affiliated with Jalili's Paydari Front, said.