Iran Appoints IRGC Veteran Zolghadr as National Security Council Chief

Iran named Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a former commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as the successor to Ali Larijani as head of the country's Supreme National Security Council, after Larijani was killed in a US-Israeli airstrike earlier this month.

Iran's presidency made the appointment with the approval of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. President Masoud Pezeshkian's deputy of communications announced the appointment on Tuesday. Larijani had been assassinated in Tehran on March 17 as part of a series of Israeli airstrikes aimed at high-ranking Iranian officials. Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed Larijani was killed along with his son Morteza Larijani and the head of his office, Alireza Bayat, as well as several guards.

Like many of Iran's ruling elite, Zolghadr has held an array of roles in government and the military during a decades-long career. His military roles included a spell as deputy commander of the IRGC, the loyalist army that has launched waves of missiles at Israel and Gulf countries. As a brigadier general, he was appointed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2007 to work with the Basij, a paramilitary force that suppresses internal dissent. During the 2000s, he served as deputy interior minister under hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose policies pushed Iran into a nuclear stand-off with the West. Most recently, before Tuesday's appointment, he served as secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council, one of the many layers of Iran's complex regime. Zolghadr is under sanctions by the UK, US and European Union, with some listings citing his role on the council as influential in Iran's nuclear programme.

Although rarely quoted in public, he surfaced a day after Hamas's attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, to celebrate what he called a "turning point" for Palestinians. "This operation is the starting point of the fall of the Zionist regime," he said at the time, according to The National. Iranian state media said he "brings decades of experience across Iran's military, security, and judicial institutions to the post at a critical juncture."

The Supreme National Security Council, formally chaired by Pezeshkian, coordinates security and foreign policy and includes top military, intelligence and government officials, in addition to representatives of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. Zolghadr's appointment consolidates the IRGC's growing clout in Iran amid growing uncertainty regarding decision-making at the top of the system.

Larijani had been appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council by President Masoud Pezeshkian in August 2025 and quickly became indispensable to Tehran's wartime footing. He sat at the intersection of military, intelligence and political decision-making, having served earlier in his career as Iran's chief nuclear negotiator and as speaker of parliament for more than a decade. His death removed one of the few insiders who could help shape a political off-ramp; figures like Larijani are often the ones who help manage not just how wars are fought, but how they end.

The broader conflict began on February 28, 2026, when the United States and Israel launched surprise airstrikes on multiple sites and cities across Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several other Iranian officials. Mojtaba Khamenei was elected on March 8, 2026, to replace his father as supreme leader. As of Tuesday, the war showed no sign of de-escalation after US President Donald Trump claimed he was speaking to an unidentified "top person," while extending by five days a deadline to hit Iran's power plants. Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said "no negotiations" were under way, accusing Trump of seeking "to manipulate the financial and oil markets."

Israel has continued its campaign of targeted assassinations since the war's opening strikes, notably killing Intelligence Minister Ismael Khatib, meaning Zolghadr is expected to be a target himself.