Iran security reshuffle puts IRGC veterans in key posts

Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has reshuffled Tehran's top security team, appointing veteran figures linked to the Revolutionary Guards to senior posts after several previous incumbents were killed in the war.

The appointments, made on August 9 and 10, include Mohsen Rezaei as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Hossein Taeb as commander of the Basij militia, Ahmad Vahidi as commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards and Ali Abdollahi as chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Jason Brodsky, policy director of the US-based United Against Nuclear Iran think tank, said the choices indicated a “more risk-ready, confrontational stance” and suggested Iran expected to remain on a wartime footing.

Rezaei, 71, commanded the Revolutionary Guards during much of the 1980s war against Iraq. Taeb, 63, previously led the Guards' intelligence arm until he was replaced in 2022 in circumstances that were not made clear. Vahidi is a former interior and defence minister, while Abdollahi previously led Iran's inter-branch central military command.

Khamenei has been in power since his father Ali Khamenei was killed at the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran in February. He has not been seen in public since taking office, and his health and influence remain uncertain.

It remains unclear how the security appointments will affect diplomacy with the United States after a 60-day deadline for an agreement expired. Talks have so far been led by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has been seen as a less hardline figure.