Iran names Mohsen Rezaei to head Supreme National Security Council
Shafaq News– Tehran
Iran has appointed Major General Mohsen Rezaei to lead the Supreme National Security Council, the Islamic Republic's paramount security and foreign-policy body, naming him both its secretary and the Supreme Leader's representative on the council through two separate decrees.
Rezaei, a veteran Revolutionary Guard commander who had been serving as Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei's military adviser, succeeds Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr.
President Masoud Pezeshkian's office announced Rezaei's appointment as secretary of the council, the position that runs the body day to day. In a parallel decree, Khamenei named him as his personal representative to the council. The dual appointment places Rezaei at the operational center of Iran's security decision-making while also serving as the Leader's direct voice there.
Khamenei's decree described Rezaei as one of the pioneers of the eight-year "Sacred Defense" —Iran's term for its 1980s war with Iraq. It thanked the outgoing Zolghadr for his "tireless efforts" without stating a reason for the change. Zolghadr has been reassigned as a political advisor to Khamenei.
The council sets Iran's line on defense, intelligence, the nuclear file, and its confrontations with the United States and Israel. It is chaired by the president and seats the speaker of parliament, the head of the judiciary, the foreign and intelligence ministers, and the commanders of the regular army and the Revolutionary Guard. The post has turned over rapidly this year: Zolghadr took it in March after his predecessor, Ali Larijani, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on March 17.
Rezaei is among the most durable figures in the Iranian establishment. He commanded the Revolutionary Guard from 1981 to 1997, through the entirety of the Iran-Iraq War, and later spent more than two decades as secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council. A repeat presidential candidate and a hardliner long under US sanctions, he was named Mojtaba Khamenei's military adviser in March.
Read more: Zolghadr message counters Iran security council replacement
با صدور حکمی از سوی حضرت آیتالله سیدمجتبی حسینی خامنهای صورت گرفتانتصاب آقای دکتر محسن رضایی به عنوان نماینده رهبر انقلاب در شورای عالی امنیت ملی pic.twitter.com/wrmaXME4Ew
— رسانه رهبر انقلاب اسلامی (@Rahbarenghelab_) August 9, 2026
با صدور حکمی از سوی حضرت آیتالله سیدمجتبی حسینی خامنهایدکتر محمدباقر ذوالقدر به عنوان مشاور سیاسی رهبر انقلاب منصوب شد pic.twitter.com/SjMblZryzn
— رسانه رهبر انقلاب اسلامی (@Rahbarenghelab_) August 9, 2026
