Iran is overhauling parts of its military command and elevating hardline figures who have pledged to put the Islamic Republic on a more “offensive” footing against perceived enemies at home and overseas.
The country’s reclusive Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, appointed six seasoned military and security officials this week to implement a new “offensive doctrine,” Mohammad Reza Naqdi, a general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told state media on Tuesday.
According to Naqdi, the reshuffle marks a shift away from Iran’s pre-war strategy, which centered largely on defense, toward a posture in which Tehran is prepared to act directly inside “enemy territory.”
“The emphasis on offensive operations, unified command, and faster decision-making suggests that the leadership wants to move from Ali Khamenei’s traditionally more cautious approach to deterrence toward what could be described as offensive deterrence,” Hamidreza Azizi, of the Clingendael Institute think tank, told CNN.
One of the most significant moves was the appointment of Ahmad Vahidi as commander-in-chief of the IRGC. Iranian media reported that Khamenei instructed him to conduct “powerful offensive operations against the enemy.”
Vahidi, who is under US sanctions and has been accused of links to terrorism abroad, is widely seen as a staunch regime loyalist and a key figure shaping Khamenei’s pro-war outlook.
He has reportedly intervened in past US-Iran peace talks and backed Tehran’s attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, and his formal rise is expected to push Iran toward an even more hardline position.
The new IRGC chief is also likely to find support from Mohsen Rezaei, a former head of the Revolutionary Guard who has been named Iran’s new chief of the Supreme National Security Council.
Rezaei has backed Iran’s claim to the Strait of Hormuz and warned the US last week that its troops faced danger if the blockade on the Islamic republic’s ports continued.
Israel’s foreign ministry warned that Vahidi and Rezaei’s demonstrates Tehran’s commitment to radical extremism by elevating IRGC loyalists.
“The Iranian regime worships terror, rewards its architects and promotes them to the highest levels of power,” the ministry said on X.
Rezaei is also among the pro-IRGC faction that believes Iran can endure any pain so long as it inflicts damage on President Trump ahead of the midterms.
“The current leadership in Tehran is far more risk-taking,” Vali Reza Nasr, an Iranian-American academic and political scientist, told CNN.
The appointments may also pave the way for an even more brutal rule inside Iran as Khamenei also named Hossein Taeb as the new head of the Basij paramilitary force.
The Basij was the body that led the horrific crackdown on anti-regime protesters earlier this year that left at least 7,000 confirmed dead, with human rights groups estimating that the death toll could be even bigger.
Taeb had previously led the Basij and had overseen the beating, killing, and arrests of protesters in 2010, leading to sanctions from the US.
The new Basij chief is a long-time supporter of Khamenei, who ordered Taeb to broaden the security forces’ reach to expand to all of Iran and boost its volunteer numbers, of which Tehran claims it already has 600,000.
The announcement comes as supreme leader Khamenei has yet to be seen in public in nearly half a year, after suffering severe leg and facial injuries in the Feb. 28 strike on the compound owned by his father, who was killed, leading to his appointment as leader.
Iran released a video purporting to show he was happy and healthy on Sunday. But the clip showed him with no injuries at all and is believed to have been made before the conflict.
Iran has repeatedly denied that Khamenei is dead or incapacitated.
The military appointments stand in contrast to President Trump’s previous claims that Iran’s new leadership was “very rational” and “less radical” than before.
The reshuffling ultimately reinforces the regime’s “maximalist and hardline positions” aimed at controlling the Strait of Hormuz and developing Iran’s nuclear program, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank.
It also solidifies Khamenei and his allies grip on Tehran against more moderate leaders who are looking for an off ramp to the war, which has exacerbated Iran’s economic free fall.
