Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr named new secretary of Iran’s national security council

2026-03-24 - 12:21

Veteran military commander and strategist Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr has been officially named the new Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Press TV reported. The announcement was made by Seyyed Mehdi Tabatabai, the deputy for communications and information at the Iranian President’s Office, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday. Zolqadr received this significant security appointment via a direct presidential decree and with the backing of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Syed Mojtaba Khamenei. He takes over from Ali Larijani, who was assassinated in an Israeli-American terrorist attack last week. Larijani had held the position since August 2025. The appointment of Zolqadr, a veteran commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and former senior security official, comes as the war imposed on Iran enters its fifth week. Insiders have remarked that Baqer Zolqadr brings decades of military, security, and judicial experience to