Mohsen Rezaei, the previous commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has been appointed as the pinnacle of Iran’s high safety physique, which performs a vital position within the nation’s safety and overseas coverage.
Rezaei takes over as secretary of the Supreme Nationwide Safety Council amid ongoing talks over the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has used as leverage through the months-long battle with the US and Israel.
He replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who has been appointed as a political adviser to Supreme Chief Mojtaba Khamenei. The place was previously held by Ali Larijani, who was assassinated in a US-Israeli strike in March.
Here’s what we learn about Rezaei and his appointment.
Who’s Mohsen Rezaei?
Rezaei, 71, headed the IRGC from 1981 to 1997. That interval included the Iran-Iraq Warfare of the Nineteen Eighties, referred to in Iran because the “Sacred Defence”.
Rezaei then went on to function a member of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council, which resolves disputes over laws between parliament and the Guardian Council.
The Guardian Council is a separate physique appointed by the supreme chief that vets candidates for elected political workplace in parliament, presidency and the Meeting of Specialists. It’s additionally tasked with reviewing laws to make sure compatibility with the structure and Islamic legislation.
Rezaei has positioned excessive significance on Iran sustaining management of the Strait of Hormuz, a slender waterway by which a fifth of worldwide oil and fuel go. In July, he stated management of the waterway was value greater than “dozens of atomic bombs”. Final week, he warned the US it could “face critical dangers and casualties” if its blockade of Iranian ports continues.
Iran has imposed a blockade on the strait in response to the US-Israel battle launched in February, whereas the US has hit Tehran with a naval blockade in efforts to place financial strain on the nation.
What can we learn about his appointment?
The Iranian president’s communications workplace introduced on Sunday night that President Masoud Pezeshkian had appointed Rezaei as secretary of the Supreme Nationwide Safety Council, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
On the identical day, Khamenei issued a decree appointing Rezaei as his consultant on the council, making particular reference to his expertise and to his being among the many “pioneers of the Sacred Defence period” through the Iran-Iraq battle – a reference that strengthened the presence of his navy background in interpretations of the explanations for his choice.
What’s the significance of his appointment?
The Supreme Nationwide Safety Council is a key establishment the place the strategic issues of the presidency, the overseas ministry, the armed forces and the safety businesses intersect.
Due to this fact, the id of the council’s secretary carries significance that goes past his administrative powers, particularly when the change in management coincides with an open battle, faltering negotiations with the US, and disputes over the phrases of navigation and sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
Rezaei will carry navy, financial and political expertise to the position, Abas Aslani, a senior analysis fellow on the Tehran-based Heart for Center East Strategic Research, advised Al Jazeera.
“They wanted to have somebody who can one way or the other synchronise totally different our bodies of the federal government,” Aslani stated.
“Politically, he’s not that a lot totally different from his predecessor on safety, however the position he can play domestically, and being a balancing act within the nation, is kind of vital on this regard,” he added.
Aslani added that Rezaei, as a former IRGC chief and member of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council, may even play an necessary position in Tehran’s negotiations with the US.
“I believe it is very important have somebody who is ready to attain out to totally different factions and to speak to them, and that’s the reason he has been picked,” he stated.
Rezaei’s appointment takes on an extra political dimension given his place through the 2024 presidential election, when he backed Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, inserting him electorally nearer to the conservative wing represented by Ghalibaf, the present parliament speaker and chief negotiator in talks with the US, relatively than to the extra hardline faction related to Saeed Jalili, who was the runner-up in opposition to Pezeshkian.
This positioning doesn’t imply that Rezaei is a average determine, neither is a single electoral stance enough to guage his everlasting alliances. But it surely reveals that his place throughout the conservative camp doesn’t essentially coincide with that of Jalili and the forces most against negotiations with the US.
This place might give Rezaei room to manoeuvre amongst a number of events: Pezeshkian’s authorities, which adopts a discourse extra open to negotiation; the conservative camp linked to Ghalibaf; and the navy and safety forces with which Rezaei has historic ties relationship again to his interval as commander of the IRGC.
What would be the implications of Rezaei’s appointment to the highest safety put up?
Analysts interviewed by Al Jazeera Arabic provided two essential readings of the appointment. One sees it as an indication that navy and safety issues are being prioritised amid battle and tensions with the US. Others argue that bringing a former IRGC chief into the guts of the choice‑making construction might, paradoxically, make it simpler for the management to promote any eventual negotiated settlement to hardline audiences at dwelling.
Iranian journalist and political analyst Mashallah Shamsolvaezin advised Al Jazeera Arabic that Rezaei’s choice stunned a section of Iranians who had anticipated new faces to enter the Supreme Nationwide Safety Council to steer the establishment through the battle and reply to calls for for renewal within the decision-making construction.
Based on Shamsolvaezin, extra hardline forces view Rezaei’s navy file, particularly his earlier command of the IRGC, as an element that provides selections issued by the council stronger safety and political ensures.
This interpretation stems from the truth that the problem dealing with Iranian decision-making is just not solely about making selections, but additionally about their skill to win acceptance inside centres of energy and among the many social base that helps the hardline present. The course of negotiations has been accompanied by chants demanding that they be stopped and accusing their supporters of weak spot, making any settlement susceptible to political one-upmanship if carried by a determine related to the average present.
Shamsolvaezin added that Rezaei’s transfer to the council’s secretariat might scale back this debate, as a result of his navy historical past provides the selections he helps make a better skill to include objections from extra hardline factions.
He added that Rezaei’s presence on the head of the council might calm a broad section of those forces, significantly regarding the negotiations, as a result of they might discover it very troublesome to accuse a former IRGC commander of weak spot or of squandering Iran’s safety pursuits.
Externally, Rezaei’s appointment permits for 2 seemingly contradictory readings: the primary is that it’s an Iranian response to the tightening US strain, and the second is that it’s a prelude to creating troublesome selections in the midst of negotiations, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
Based on the primary studying, Tehran desires to say that an escalation of sanctions, blockade and navy strain might be met with an analogous hardened place, and that placing ahead calls for that transcend earlier understandings will immediate Iran to current figures who characterize a extra hardline entrance to handle the confrontation.
The second studying proceeds from the concept main settlements don’t essentially go by average figures, however might require somebody who belongs to the very centre of energy. When a determine with a navy and safety file adopts the choice of negotiation, he turns into extra capable of defend it domestically and fewer susceptible to accusations of constructing concessions.
Shamsolvaezin believes Rezaei can play a job in pushing political negotiations with the US ahead, as a result of his navy historical past supplies home cowl and a significant assure for implementing any future understanding.
Based on this studying, the query is just not whether or not Rezaei is hardline or average, however relatively the power of his navy and political credentials to show a choice, no matter its course, into an actionable coverage.
‘Shift in safety doctrine’
However worldwide relations Professor Mohsen Farkhani gives an evaluation that leans extra in the direction of contemplating the appointment a mirrored image of a shift in Iranian safety doctrine, relatively than merely a seek for home cowl for negotiations.
Farkhani advised Al Jazeera Arabic that Rezaei’s appointment got here after what he described as repeated US violations of the June Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), and the failure of diplomacy to include rigidity and battle. Tehran has accused Washington of violating the phrases of the MoU.
In his evaluation, Rezaei’s expertise – whether or not in commanding the IRGC or organising forces through the eight-year battle – aligns with Iran’s shift in the direction of the idea of “offensive deterrence based mostly on punishment”, and readiness for a critical navy confrontation and a long-term battle of attrition.
Farkhani says the choice reveals that better weight is being given to conventional warfare approaches, alongside continued reliance on uneven strategies, to impose cumulative losses on hostile states throughout a high-pressure, long-term confrontation.
Based mostly on this studying, Farkhani expects Tehran to undertake much less versatile positions in the direction of the US, whether or not in potential negotiations or in points associated to sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
In his view, this doesn’t imply that Rezaei alone will change the construction of decision-making or the authorized weight of President Pezeshkian, the overseas ministry and the IRGC management, as a result of the council operates inside particular parameters and performs the perform of coordinating between establishments below the supervision of the supreme chief and his remaining selections.
However his appointment, in response to Farkhani, will lend better weight to the navy and safety issues in decision-making and its implementation, whereas making assessments of deterrence and battle extra distinguished when political and negotiating choices are being thought of.
In the end, Farkhani sees Rezaei’s appointment as a sign that navy and safety issues are being given precedence and that Iran’s place is hardening, whereas Shamsolvaezin argues that the previous IRGC commander’s hardline background might, quite the opposite, give him the power to offer inner cowl for any potential negotiated settlement.
