DPA
Tehran
The secretary of Iran’s powerful Supreme National Security Council, Brigadier General Ali Shamkhani, will be replaced after 10 years in office, state media reported on Monday.
Ali Akbar Ahmadian will be the new secretary. In this role he will serve as a direct representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the most powerful man in the country.
Ahmadian, a former commander of the influential Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), is subject to international sanctions.
Iran’s powerful Supreme National Security Council deals with issues related to national security, national defence as well as the protection of the values of the Islamic Revolution.
The Iranian president is chairman of the body, and it includes about a dozen members including several ministers and generals.
The council makes decisions outside parliamentary scrutiny that are deemed final after approval by the religious leader. One of the issues the body has repeatedly dealt with in the past is Iran’s nuclear programme.
