Iran moved to reorganize its security lineup by appointing a hard-line figure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to succeed Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Semi-official Mehr News Agency and other local media reported on the 24th (local time) that Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, 72, was appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council by presidential order following the approval of the supreme leader.
Zolghadr, the new secretary, is a former IRGC brigadier general and has served as secretary of the Supreme Council for the Coordination of the Three Branches since 2021. The council mediates conflicts among Iran's key constitutional institutions and advises the supreme leader on policy, and the position is directly appointed by the supreme leader. Because of this, Zolghadr is classified as a key figure close to the supreme leader.
From 1997 to 2005, he served as deputy commander of the IRGC and is also known to have been substantively involved in founding Ansar Hezbollah, a civilian organization with Islamist leanings.
The appointment aligns with a recent shift in Iran's power center toward hard-liners with military backgrounds. The new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, earlier appointed Mohsen Rezaei, 72, a hard-liner and former IRGC commander, as a military adviser, and this time tapped a veteran of the revolutionary generation for the top security post. Zolghadr, along with Rezaei, has also faced allegations of orchestrating the 1978 assassination of U.S. oil company executives in southern Iran.