Iran names new head of top national security body

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has appointed Mohsen Rezaei as the new secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. Rezaei, a former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, will replace Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr. According to The National UAE, Rezaei commanded the IRGC from 1981 to 1997 and previously served as a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and secretary of the Supreme Council for Economic Co-ordination.

The Supreme National Security Council, formally chaired by President Masoud Pezeshkian, co-ordinates security and foreign policy and includes top military, intelligence, and government officials. Rezaei is also Khamenei's representative on the council. The National UAE reported that Khamenei praised Rezaei's "valuable experiences" and described him as "one of the pioneers of the eight-year Sacred Defence", referring to the Iran-Iraq war that began in 1980.

Khamenei's decree also expressed gratitude to Zolghadr, a veteran of the IRGC, for his efforts since taking over from Ali Larijani. Larijani was reportedly killed in US-Israeli strikes in March, weeks after the start of the Iran war, according to Press TV.

Brief written by urgent.news from Punch, Punch Nigeria, The National UAE — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.