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TEHRAN: Iran has appointed veteran politician Ali Larijani, considered a moderate on foreign policy, to lead the Islamic republic’s top security body, state media said Tuesday.
“Ali Larijani was appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council in a decree by President Masoud Pezeshkian,” official news agency IRNA reported.
Larijani, 68, who is seen as a moderate conservative in Iran, replaces Ali Akbar Ahmadian, a Revolutionary Guards general who was named to the position in May 2023.
His appointment comes after a 12-day war in June, launched by Israel and later joined by the United States, during which key Iranian nuclear and military sites were hit.
The security council is responsible for laying out Iran’s defense and security strategy, but its decisions must be approved by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The secretary, as the most senior member of the council, oversees the implementation of its decisions.
A former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Larijani has held several senior government positions over three decades.
Khamenei made him one of his advisers in May 2020.
The following year, Larijani’s presidential run was blocked by a government vetting body despite him being considered a leading candidate.
Starting in 2005, Larijani had led Iran’s nuclear policy but resigned after two years of negotiations with Western powers, citing “serious differences” with the president at the time, ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
As parliament speaker from 2008 to 2020, Larijani put his weight behind the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers.
The son of a grand ayatollah, Larijani comes from an influential Shiite Muslim family with ties to the government, and holds a doctorate in philosophy.
Tehran and Washington had been engaged in negotiations aimed at reaching a new nuclear deal earlier this year, but the talks were derailed by the Israel-Iran war.
Israel said its offensive was aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied pursuing.

BEIRUT: The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah warned Tuesday that if Israel intensifies its military operations against his group, the Iran-backed armed faction will resume firing missiles toward Israel.
Naim Kassem’s comments came as Lebanon’s Cabinet was meeting to discuss Hezbollah’s disarmament. Beirut is under US pressure to disarm the group that recently fought a 14-month war with Israel and was left gravely weakened, with many of its political and military leaders dead.
Since the war ended in November with a US-brokered ceasefire, Hezbollah officials have said the group will not discuss its disarmament until Israel withdraws from five hills it controls inside Lebanon and stops almost daily airstrikes that have killed or wounded hundreds of people, most of them Hezbollah members.
Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild its military capabilities. Israel’s military has said the five locations in Lebanon provide vantage points or are located across from communities in northern Israel, where about 60,000 Israelis were displaced during the war.
Since the ceasefire, Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for one attack on a disputed area along the border.
In a televised speech Tuesday, Kassem said Hezbollah rejects any timetable to hand over its weapons.
“Israel’s interest is not to widen the aggression because if they expand, the resistance will defend, the army will defend and the people will defend,” Kassem said. “This defense will lead to the fall of missiles inside Israel.”
Since the war ended, Hezbollah has withdrawn most of its fighters and weapons from the area along the border with Israel south of the Litani river.
Last week, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reiterated calls for Hezbollah to give up its weapons, angering the group’s leadership.
The ceasefire agreement left vague how Hezbollah’s weapons and military facilities north of the Litani river should be treated, saying Lebanese authorities should dismantle unauthorized facilities starting with the area south of the river.
Hezbollah maintains the deal only covers the area south of the Litani, while Israel and the US say it mandates disarmament of the group throughout Lebanon.
Kassem said Hezbollah rejects a government vote over its weapons, saying such a decision should be unanimously backed by all Lebanese.
“No one can deprive Lebanon of its force to protect its sovereignty,” Kassem said.
Hezbollah’s weapons are a divisive issue among Lebanese, with some groups calling for its disarmament.
The Israel-Hezbollah war started a day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack against Israel from Gaza. It left more than 4,000 people dead and caused damage worth $11 billion.