Mohamad Baker Zolgadra former member of the Revolutionary Guard and ultraconservative of the hardest wing of the Islamic Republic, takes the helm in times of war of the Supreme National Security Councilthe body responsible for defining the country’s defense, nuclear and foreign policies.
Tehran thus replaces the pragmatic Ali Larijaniassassinated last week by Israel, with a figure from the hard wing of the Islamic Republic in the midst of a war that is now approaching a month’s duration.
The office of the president of Iran, Masud Pezeshkianannounced the appointment of Zolgadr a week after the murder of Larijaní, and detailed that the measure has been approved by the supreme leader Mojtaba Jameneiwho has not yet been seen or heard.
Considered a hawk of Iranian politics and with a doctorate in strategic management, Zolgadr, 72, has passed through numerous organizations of the Islamic Republic and now held the position of secretary of the Discernment Council of the Expediency of the System, an organization that mediates between Parliament and the Guardian Council, the body that vetoes legislation.
He has spent much of his career in the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard, elite military corps who became his deputy commander and chief of his staff. He was also one of those responsible for the Islamic militia Basij.
He was Vice Minister of the Interior for Security Affairs during the government of the ultra-conservative former president. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013) and over the years he has held relevant positions in the Judicial Branch.
“Very hard line” figure
Media such as state television highlighted his “decades of experience in military, security and judicial institutions at a critical juncture” for the country.
International analysts, however, have described him as a “very hard-line” figure.
“General Zolgadr, of the very hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has replaced the relatively pragmatic Larijani — assassinated by Israel last week — as the new National Security Advisor,” the director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, Ali Vaez, said in X.
The Supreme National Security Council is the most important security body in the country, in which decisions are made such as the internet outage or the defense strategiesand several ministers, three representatives of the supreme leader and figures from the country’s security forces are part of it.
Zolgadr comes to office at a key moment and in the midst of a campaign of assassinations of senior Iranian political and military officials in the conflict, which has now reached 25 days since the United States and Israel began it on February 28 with bombings against military installations and government complexes in Tehran and other cities.
