Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has appointed former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) chief Mohsen Rezaee as his representative to the country’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), replacing Mohammad Baqir Zolghadr.

The position was formerly held by Ali Larijani, who was assassinated in US-Israeli strikes in March, and then Mohammad Baqir Zolghadr. Rezaee is a former IRGC chief and a member of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council, which resolves differences between parliament and the Guardian Council, a separate body that vets candidates for office. Rezaee was a military commander during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, referred to in Iran as the ‘Sacred Defence’.