Some in Iran call him the “eternal candidate”. Maj. Gen. Mohsen Rezaee, now 71, ran for President of Iran three times — 2009, 2013 and 2021. The former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has always remained an institutional insider and an ideologically committed apparatchik of the Islamic Republic, but, despite repeated attempts, he never managed to secure a position at the heart of Iran’s strategic decision making apparatus. The war the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran on February 28, 2026 changed that. Mr. Rezaee is now one of the most important decision makers in war-hit Iran and a close confidant of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

In March, when Mojtaba was appointed the Supreme Leader after the assassination of his father and predecessor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr. Rezaee was picked as the military adviser of the new leader. The country was under attack. A host of senior leaders were killed in the initial phase of the war — from Ali Khamenei to Ali Larijani, who was the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. Initially Mojtaba opted for replacements for the assassinated leaders and allowed the system to function without any major shake-up. But earlier this month, he made a host of changes in the government by appointing his loyal supporters to key posts.

Ali Abdollahi was named the chief of staff of the armed forces; Ahmad Vahidi, the IRGC commander, was promoted to the rank of Major General; Ali Azmaei became commander of the IRGC Navy and Hossein Taeb was appointed commander of the paramilitary Basij. But the most significant elevation was that of Mr. Rezaee. He replaced Mohammed Bagher Zolqadr as secretary of the Security Council. Mojtaba’s office has also issued a special decree naming him as the representative of the Supreme Leader on the Council, which is today the most important wartime decision-making body on strategic matters.

Born in 1954, Mohsen Rezaee grew up in the Shah’s Iran. In the early 1970s, he became active in anti-monarchy protests, and the Shah’s infamous secret police, SAVAK, arrested him in 1973. He later joined the Islamist guerrilla group Mansouroun (The Victors), whose members filled the ranks of the IRGC after the Shah’s regime fell n 1979. Mr. Rezaee, then 25 years old, sat on the 12-member committee that drafted the IRGC’s founding charter. In 1981, a year after Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, Mr. Rezaee was appointed the commander-in-chief of the IRGC, a post he held for 16 years.

Principalist faction

A PhD in economics (his thesis was on the theory of money, credit and general balance), Mr. Rezaee co-founded the Imam Hossein University in Tehran. He had also served as the secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council, a constitutional body tasked with resolving differences between the Guardian Council and the legislature.

Mr. Rezaee has long belonged to the “principalist” faction of Iran’s political class — the group broadly called conservatives. In 2002, when reformist Mohammad Khatami was the President, Mr. Rezaee launched a news site Baztab as a conservative platform to counter the reformist agenda.

The 2026 war elevated his position among the top echelons of the Islamic Republic as Mojtaba turned to his hardline loyalists to run the security apparatus. Mr. Rezaee’s views about the war, Iran’s nuclear programme or its control of the Strait of Hormuz are hardly a secret.

In July, he said the control of the Strait, a critical waterway connecting the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, was “more important than dozens of atomic bombs”. In an interview with CNN in June, he said the “ball is in Trump’s court”, referring to Iran’s demand to release roughly $24 billion of frozen assets. According to him, U.S. President Donald Trump cannot be trusted in negotiations. He said Iran was prepared for any U.S. ground invasion, which would be “great for us”. Uranium enrichment, he once stated, is “an inviolable right” of the Islamic Republic.

The hardline insider is today a central figure in Iran’s wartime leadership. By elevating Mr. Rezaee to secretary of the Security Council, Mojtaba Khamenei is sending a message that is lost on no one.

Published - August 23, 2026 02:03 am IST