These changes reflect ongoing tensions and strategic realignments within Iran’s military and political landscape
Photo : REUTERS
Iran has announced six new appointments to key military positions, including a new armed forces chief of staff and a new commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei reshapes the country’s security leadership.
Ali Abdollahi, head of Iran’s joint war command, has been appointed chief of staff of the armed forces, while Ali Ozmaei has been named head of the IRGC Navy.
Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi has also been confirmed as commander-in-chief of the IRGC, with the rank of major general. He succeeds Mohammad Pakpour, who was killed during the opening salvo of the US-Israel war on Iran in late February.
The appointments were formally announced on Monday.
The reshuffle comes alongside the appointment of veteran IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaee as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s representative on the powerful body. Rezaee, 71, commanded the IRGC for 16 years, including during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
His appointment has been viewed by analysts as a sign that Tehran is strengthening its wartime security structure rather than softening its approach towards Washington.
Veteran Commander Returns to Top Role
Rezaee served as IRGC commander for 16 years before moving into politics and economic affairs after the Iran-Iraq war. He later became secretary of the Expediency Council, another senior state body, and helped develop a long-term national development plan.
During President Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency from 2021 to 2024, he was given high-level economic coordination responsibilities. He has never held elected office, despite running unsuccessfully for president four times.
Rezaee returned to military uniform during the current conflict, becoming a military adviser to Mojtaba Khamenei shortly after he succeeded his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Since then, he has projected a message of resistance towards the US, Israel and other regional powers.
Rezaee previously criticised a memorandum of understanding signed with the US in June that temporarily lifted a naval blockade and suspended oil sanctions to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He said his position was closer to that of Mojtaba Khamenei, who approved the agreement despite reservations.
“I ask friends who are against negotiations to wait, the Americans will destroy it themselves and won’t let it lead to any results,” Rezaee said in early July, shortly before the agreement was suspended after attacks resumed.
Last week, he warned that the US must change its behaviour or face serious risks and casualties to its forces. Iran, he said, “will never permit the opening of a second corridor in the Strait of Hormuz”.
The SNSC brings together Iran’s presidency, foreign ministry, armed forces and security and intelligence organisations. It also coordinates communication with the supreme leader’s office, which must give final approval to its decisions.
State-linked outlets said 12 of the council’s 13 voting members supported the June memorandum with the US, with ultraconservative Saeed Jalili reportedly the only member to oppose it.
The agreement was criticised by hardline MPs, media and supporters of the Islamic Republic, who argued that the Strait of Hormuz should not have been reopened until Washington offered further concessions.
‘Strategic Restructuring’
Iranian media had reported in recent days that Rezaee could take over as secretary of the security council. Some reports said President Masoud Pezeshkian had initially resisted the appointment by rejecting the resignation of former security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr.
Zolghadr was eventually replaced but was immediately appointed as political adviser to Khamenei.
Analysts have noted that Zolghadr was close to parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has also been involved in negotiations with the US.
His replacement could therefore be an attempt to limit Ghalibaf’s influence, although there has been no official confirmation of such a motive. Ghalibaf was among senior officials who congratulated Rezaee on his appointment, alongside Vahidi and judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei also welcomed the appointment while stressing the importance of state institutions. “The whole world has clearly seen over the past year-and-a-half that our country is a country of institutions, not individuals,” he said. “This was exactly the secret of the longevity and victory of the Islamic Republic in these challenging conditions.”
Nournews, an outlet affiliated with the national security council, described Rezaee’s appointment as the beginning of a broader “strategic restructuring” suited to Iran’s new wartime circumstances. “The central issue is not one secretary’s departure and another’s arrival, but how consequential the steps taken by the SNSC secretariat in this new phase will be,” it said.
Israel Condemns Rezaee Appointment
Israel criticised Rezaee’s appointment, pointing to his status as the subject of an Interpol Red Notice over his alleged role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people. Vahidi is also subject to an Interpol Red Notice in connection with the bombing. “The Iranian regime worships terror, rewards its architects and promotes them to the highest levels of power,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said.
Hardliners Welcome Changes
The reshuffle has been welcomed by hardliners in Tehran, some of whom see the appointment of a veteran military commander to the top security body as evidence of a tougher stance towards the US.
Hardline MP Amirhossein Sabeti, who is affiliated with Saeed Jalili’s Paydari Front, said the appointment also exposed tensions within President Pezeshkian’s government. “After it emerged that the supreme leader selected Mohsen Rezaee as his representative in the council, the other thing that became clear was that Pezeshkian had for long been standing up to the leader on changing Zolghadr with Rezaee,” he said.
Rezaee has previously made strongly worded comments about a possible US military attack. In July 2015, months before Iran signed a nuclear agreement with world powers, he said that if the US launched a ground assault, Iran would capture American soldiers.