Iran has installed a hardened military veteran at the helm of its most powerful security body, naming Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a retired brigadier general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC). The appointment fills the vacancy left by Ali Larijani, one of the Islamic Republic’s most prominent non-clerical figures, who was killed on March 17 in a joint US-Israeli air strike.
The announcement was made Tuesday by the communications deputy of President Masoud Pezeshkian, who formally chairs the SNSC, via a post on X. The council coordinates Iran’s security and foreign policy and brings together the country’s top military, intelligence, and government officials, as well as representatives of the supreme leader.
Larijani, 67, died in an Israeli strike during a week in which the broader regional conflict escalated sharply, sending shockwaves through global energy markets and destabilising the world economy. He had been widely regarded as a stabilising figure within the Islamic Republic’s complex power structure and was believed to have been playing an elevated leadership role in the weeks following the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US and Israeli strikes in late February.
His successor brings decades of military and administrative experience. Born in 1954, Zolghadr fought in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and co-founded and commanded the Ramazan Garrison in 1983. He led the IRGC Joint Staff from 1989 to 1997 and subsequently served as IRGC deputy commander-in-chief for eight years until 2005. Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he was appointed deputy interior minister for security and police affairs, a post he held until 2007. Most recently, he has served as secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council since September 2021 — a body that advises the supreme leader and mediates between Iran’s competing power centres.
The appointment arrives at a moment of acute institutional strain for Tehran. Mojtaba Khamenei, who assumed the role of supreme leader following his father’s assassination in early March, has not appeared in public since taking power, deepening uncertainty about the direction of Iranian governance. Iranian army chief Amir Hatami has vowed "decisive" retaliation for Larijani’s killing, signalling that hardliners within the security establishment retain significant influence over the country’s response calculus.
The diplomatic landscape remains volatile. US President Donald Trump announced a five-day pause on strikes targeting Iranian energy infrastructure and power plants on Monday, claiming he was in contact with an unidentified senior Iranian figure. Hours after that announcement, Iranian media reported that energy-related facilities in central and southwestern Iran had been struck — a development that cast doubt on the durability of any informal understanding.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf flatly rejected any suggestion of active negotiations, stating that no talks were under way and accusing Trump of attempting to manipulate global financial and oil markets through his public statements. The denial underscores the deep mistrust between Tehran and Washington even as both sides appear to be probing the boundaries of escalation.
The war, which began with the initial US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, has extended its reach across the Gulf region. Civilian casualties have been reported in the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait, and the conflict has fundamentally disrupted regional energy flows, with consequences reverberating through the global economy.
Zolghadr’s elevation to the SNSC secretariat places a figure with deep IRGC roots at the centre of Iran’s strategic decision-making precisely when those decisions carry the highest possible stakes. Whether his appointment signals a more militarised approach to the crisis — or simply reflects the pragmatic need to fill a critical vacancy quickly — will become clearer in the days ahead as Iran formulates its response to the killing of Larijani and the continued pressure on its infrastructure.
