Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has appointed the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, as the country's top security officer, replacing Ali Shamkhani, according to the state news agency IRNA.
Akbar Ahmadian will replace Shamkhani, a powerful longtime government official with ties to a recently executed suspected British-Iranian spy. However, Shamkhani, who is seen as the only ethnic Arab Iranian holding a significant position in a Shia-dominated country, was also key in negotiations with the Arab Gulf states, and was one of those responsible for the negotiated deal. by China with Saudi Arabia in April, ending years of political rift between the regional rivals.
Active on the political spectrum in the Islamic Republic for decades, Shamkhani was appointed security council secretary in 2013 and served as defense minister under reform-minded President Mohammad Khatami from 1997 to 2005.
The new secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, is the former head of the strategic center of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a body of the Iranian Armed Forces created with the function of protecting the theocratic system of the Islamic Republic, and that it has been criticized for its crackdown on civilians during the anti-government protests that have ravaged the country since the assassination of Mahsa Amini. The appointment could denote a tightening of security policies in Iran.
However, an Iranian source has told Reuters that the change in leadership in the Supreme National Security Council is unlikely to have an impact on his policies and that Shamkhani could be considered for a "more important post" in the republic. islamic
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been described as a "terrorist group" by the United States since 2019, and in 2023 the European Parliament has urged its member states to use the same designation.
