Iran names new head of top national security body

Rezaee commanded the IRGC from 1981 to 1997, including during most of the Iran-Iraq war. (Iran International)

• Iran appoints former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaee to lead its Supreme National Security Council
• President Masoud Pezeshkian named Rezaee after Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr resigned from the post

TEHRAN: The former commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezaee, has been named head of the country’s highest national security body, the Iranian presidency announced on Sunday.
“In light of the resignation of Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr from his position as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and his appointment to new functions, President Masoud Pezeshkian has named Mohsen Rezaee as the head of this body,” presidency spokesman Mehdi Tabatabaei said on X.
Rezaee, 71, led the Guards from 1981 to 1997 — a tenure that included almost all of the Iran-Iraq war — before going on to occupy several high-ranking political posts. He then served as military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
Rezaee declared in July that control of the Strait of Hormuz, now at the center of the ongoing conflict between Iran and the United States, was “more important than dozens of atomic bombs.”
His predecessor, Zolghadr, was also a former Guards commander and took up leadership of the council in March.
He will now become a political adviser to Khamenei, according to a statement released by the supreme leader’s office on Sunday.