Iran appoints former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaei as top national security official

The former commander in chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rezaei, has been named head of the country's highest national security body, the Iranian presidency announced on Sunday.

"In light of the resignation of Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr from his position as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and his appointment to new functions, President Masoud Pezeshkian has named Mohsen Rezaei as the head of this body," presidency spokesman Mehdi Tabatabaei said on X.

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Rezaei, 71, led the Guards from 1981 to 1997 -- a tenure that included almost all of the Iran-Iraq war -- before going on to occupy several high-ranking political posts. He then served as military adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

Rezaei declared in July that control of the Strait of Hormuz, now at the centre of the ongoing conflict between Iran and the United States, was "more important than dozens of atomic bombs".

His predecessor, Zolghadr, was also a former Guards commander and took up leadership of the council in March.

He will now become a political adviser to Khamenei, according to a statement released by the supreme leader's office on Sunday.