With Mojtaba Khamenei Out of Public Eye for Months, yet 6 Top Military Posts Filled in His Name

TEHRAN, Aug 10: Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Monday formally appointed six senior military commanders, consolidating a wartime leadership structure that had operated for months without publicly issued decrees while several critical intelligence positions remain without permanent chiefs.

Ali Abdollahi was appointed chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, replacing Abdolrahim Mousavi, who was killed alongside IRGC commander Mohammad Pakpour and Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh in the opening strikes of the war on February 28. Former Army Ground Forces commander Kioumars Heydari was appointed Abdollahi’s deputy.

Khamenei also formally appointed Ahmad Vahidi as commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and promoted him to major general. Mostafa Izadi was named deputy commander-in-chief of the IRGC.

Rear Admiral Ali Azmaei was formally appointed commander of the IRGC Navy, while Hossein Taeb, the former head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, was appointed commander of the Basij paramilitary force.

The decrees formally confirm the positions of Vahidi and Azmaei, who had already been publicly presented as commanders without previously published appointment orders. Vahidi emerged as IRGC chief after Pakpour was killed earlier this year, while Azmaei took over the Guards’ naval command in July following the killing of Alireza Tangsiri.

Abdollahi had previously commanded the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran’s joint wartime operational command responsible for coordinating the country’s armed forces. During the conflict, he became one of Tehran’s most prominent military figures, issuing repeated warnings to the United States and Israel while overseeing a command central to Iran’s missile operations and military leverage over the Strait of Hormuz.

One of the most politically significant appointments is the return of Hossein Taeb to a senior operational position as commander of the Basij, the IRGC’s paramilitary organization that has played a key role in suppressing domestic protests.

Taeb previously commanded the Basij before spending more than a decade heading the IRGC Intelligence Organization. He was removed from that position in 2022 following a series of security breaches and Israeli operations inside Iran.

Despite his removal, Taeb remained influential within Iran’s security establishment and is regarded as part of the older intelligence network associated with Mojtaba Khamenei. During the current war, he has reportedly participated in high-level political and security discussions, including debates over negotiations with the United States.

His appointment puts one of Iran’s most prominent intelligence and security figures back in charge of a major paramilitary force at a time when Tehran faces both external military pressure and concerns over renewed domestic unrest.

Despite the sweeping military appointments, several sensitive security posts remain without publicly announced permanent commanders.

Neither of the IRGC’s two principal intelligence bodies has a publicly named permanent chief. Majid Khademi, who headed the IRGC Intelligence Organization and also served as head of its Intelligence Protection Organization, was killed in a Tehran strike on April 6.

The two organizations have separate but complementary responsibilities. The IRGC Intelligence Organization focuses heavily on political and security operations, including domestic repression, while the Intelligence Protection Organization is responsible for counterintelligence, internal security, loyalty and preventing infiltration within the Guards.

There is also no publicly announced permanent successor to Gholamreza Rezaeian, head of the police Intelligence Organization, who was killed in the opening US-Israeli strikes.

Two other senior positions within the Armed Forces General Staff have also lacked publicly announced permanent successors for more than a year. Deputy chiefs Gholamreza Mehrabi, responsible for intelligence, and Mehdi Rabbani, responsible for operations, were killed in Israeli strikes during the June 2025 war.

The reshuffle also leaves two important cabinet-level vacancies unresolved.

The Defense Ministry continues to operate under acting minister Majid Ebn al-Reza, who was appointed by President Masoud Pezeshkian after Nasirzadeh was killed on February 28. Ebn al-Reza has continued representing the ministry at official meetings and international engagements but has not been nominated as a permanent defense minister.

The Intelligence Ministry has similarly lacked a permanent minister since Esmail Khatib was killed in March. Pezeshkian’s office announced after his death that an acting minister had been appointed but did not publicly identify the individual.

No name has subsequently been disclosed. Reports have indicated that Pezeshkian’s efforts to appoint a permanent intelligence minister faced resistance from Vahidi and the IRGC leadership.

Unlike the military appointments issued by the Supreme Leader, however, the defense and intelligence ministries are cabinet positions. Under Article 133 of Iran’s Constitution, ministers are nominated by the president and must receive a vote of confidence from parliament, meaning they cannot simply be filled through a decree from the commander-in-chief.

The latest appointments therefore strengthen Iran’s formal wartime military command structure while leaving some of the country’s most sensitive intelligence and ministerial positions unresolved.