Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, appointed former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Mohsen Rezaei as secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council.

Rezaei will also serve as Khamenei’s representative on the council. The post was previously held by Ali Larijani, who was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes in March. After him, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr served as acting secretary.

Khamenei also appointed Zolghadr as his political adviser.

Rezaei is a member of the Expediency Discernment Council, a body that resolves disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council, which among other things reviews candidates for public office.

During the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, Rezaei was a military commander. In Iran, that period is referred to as the “Sacred Defense.”