Ali Akbar Ahmadian has been officially announced as the new Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, replacing Shamkhani, according to a statement on the official presidential website.
On Monday, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi appointed a Revolutionary Guards general as the new secretary of the country’s top security body, replacing longtime chief and leading Gulf mediator Ali Shamkhani.
“Ali Akbar Ahmadian was appointed as the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council by the decree of the president,” the official presidential website reported.
Ahmadian, who studied at the National Defence University, was responsible for the strategic center of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps before his appointment to the new post, according to the website.
He was also a member of the Expediency Council, which serves as an advisory board to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ahmadian has also previously served as commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces and the head of the Guards’ joint staff, the presidential website added.
The presidential decree ends the decade-long tenure of Ali Shamkhani, 67, who was crucial in Iran’s landmark rapprochement with Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia in March.
Shamkhani, an ethnic Arab previously serving as a Revolutionary Guards commander, had been credited with defusing Iran’s years-long tensions with some Gulf nations.
Miroslava Salazar with AFP
