Ali Larijani reappointed secretary of Iran's top security body

Islamic Republic also revives Iraq war-era Defense Council to review defense plans and enhance capabilities of its armed forces amid a shakeup after Israel war

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has appointed Ali Larijani as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, the country’s semi-official Fars news agency reported on Tuesday.

Larijani is a senior adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. The appointment took place amid institutional changes following Iran’s 12-day air war with Israel in June.

Israel said its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.

Iran retaliated to Israel’s strikes by launching over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel. The attacks killed 29 people and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals.

The war, which saw the US join Israel in striking nuclear enrichment centers, reportedly killed more than 1,000 people in Iran and was the Islamic Republic’s most severe security challenge since its war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the 1980s.

A former member of the Revolutionary Guards, Larijani held the same top security position from 2005 to 2007 and was parliamentary speaker from 2008 to 2020. He now replaces Ali Akbar Ahmadian, who had become SNSC secretary in 2023.

Illustrative: A woman walks past a recently unveiled billboard bearing an image featuring the legendary mythical Persian archer, Arash, in Tehran’s Vanak Square on July 16, 2025, with an excerpt from a poem in Farsi that reads: “For Iran, I place my soul in the bow… The arrow of Arash breaks through the sky.” (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

In April, prior to the war with Israel, he said Iran would pursue nuclear weapons if attacked.

“We are not moving toward [nuclear] weapons, but if you do something wrong in the Iranian nuclear issue, you will force Iran to move toward that because it has to defend itself,” Larijani told state TV at the time.

Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.

On Sunday, Iran also revived an Iraq war-era Defense Council to review defense plans and enhance the capabilities of its armed forces in a centralized manner.

Iran’s president heads both the Defense Council and the SNSC.