Iran’s New Security Chief Marches to the Same Tune as His Predecessors

Regime officials in Tehran are playing musical chairs with vacant positions. Israel’s elimination of Ali Larijani on March 16 has left Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) in the hands of a new chief, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, as of March 24.

The SNSC brings together Iran’s military, intelligence, and foreign policy across the regime’s main power centers — coordinating with the supreme leader to ensure strategic priorities are enforced.

Anyone running the SNSC should have experience in navigating regime politics, advancing its nuclear ambitions, and suppressing dissent. Zolghadr fulfills all these criteria. His replacement of Larijani is a reminder that the Islamic Republic has a deep bench to fill vacant positions during wartime.

The SNSC’s Outsized Role

According to the Islamic Republic’s Constitution, the SNSC is responsible for coordinating “activities in the areas relating to politics, intelligence, social, cultural, and economic fields regarding general defense security policies.” It also ensures that Iran maintains the resources for defending against both “internal and external threats.” This makes the SNSC the body where decisions on war, internal security, and, more recently, Tehran’s nuclear program, come together.

Established in 1989, the SNSC is comprised of the president, heads of the legislative and judiciary branches, the chief of the armed forces general staff, commanders of the army and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and relevant ministers, along with two representatives of the supreme leader. The council is led by its secretary, now Zolghadr.

New Chief has Decades of Experience With IRGC

 Zolghadr cofounded and commanded the Ramezan Garrison, a unit for the extraterritorial training of Shiite Iraqi proxy militias formed in 1983, four years after the Islamic Revolution.

This command laid the groundwork for the formation of the Quds Force, the IRGC branch tasked with establishing a global terror network, responsible for the killing of hundreds of American personnel in Iraq. Zolghadr would later serve as the deputy commander-in-chief of the IRGC between 1997 and 2005, overseeing its internal and external operations. One day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, atrocities in southern Israel, Zolghadr celebrated the terror as “the starting point of the fall of the Zionist regime.”

The UN Security Council sanctioned Zolghadr in 2007 under Resolution 1747 for his role as a senior IRGC figure linked to Iran’s “proliferation sensitive nuclear activities and the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems,” a designation later adopted by the European Union under its Iran sanctions framework. The United Kingdom sanctioned him in 2023 for his involvement in “nuclear activity.”

Zolghadr Played Role in the Regime’s Repression Against Iranians

Zolghadr was appointed in 2007 as the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces for coordinating with the Basij, an ideological paramilitary group that operates as the primary suppression arm that kills protestors.

He later transitioned into the judiciary, overseeing crime reduction and later handling strategic affairs. Iran’s judicial system functions as the regime’s legal arm of repression, institutionalizing crackdowns.

Canada sanctioned Zolghadr in 2022 following the regime’s crackdown on the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests for “gross and systematic human rights violations.” At the time, he was serving as secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council, which resolves disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council and advises the supreme leader on state policy.

Targeted Eliminations Should Be a Means, Not an End

While decapitation strikes have degraded the Islamic Republic’s command structures and disrupted its military capabilities, the regime remains intact. Sustaining military pressure is the precondition for a resolution to the conflict.

Any premature ceasefire could squander the leverage built through U.S. and Israeli tactical military success. It would leave the regime wounded but functional, and still capable of threatening U.S. allies and interests in the Middle East, and able to rebuild regional proxies.

Changing Iran’s governance will need to come from the Iranian people. The role of continued targeted strikes should be used to set the conditions for the Iranian people to determine their own future government. Like U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper told Iranians this week, “There will be a clear signal at some point … for you to be able to come out.”

Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he focuses on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republic’s regional malign influence. Aaron Goren is a research analyst and editor at FDD. For more analysis from the authors and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Janatan on X @JanatanSayeh. Follow Aaron on X @RealAaronGoren. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.