Iran Appoints New Secretary for Supreme National Security Council After Previous Official Killed

Mohammad Baqer Zolkadr has been appointed as the new secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council. He has replaced Ali Larijani, who was killed in an Israeli attack on 17 March. This information was given by an official of the Iranian President's Communications Department on the social media platform X. Zolkadr has been a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Zolkadr was born in the city of Fasa, Iran, in 1954. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from Tehran University before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. His wife is Sadegeh Begum Hejazi, who has been the head of the Office of Women and Family Affairs at the Organization of Islamic Culture and Communication since 2007. His son-in-law Kazem Gharibabadi is Iran's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Vienna and also represents the country at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Zolkadr was associated with a group called "Mansurun" before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Zolkadr was involved in a 1978 assassination attempt on an Iranian oil company and was charged with being an engineer in the United Nations Security Council under Resolution 17.