Ali Akbar Ahmadian, veteran IRGC commander, replaces Shamkhani

May 22, 2023 - 13:53

TEHRAN – Ali Akbar Ahamadian, an IRGC commander, was appointed on Monday by the Iranian president as the new secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

“While appreciating the 10-year efforts of Admiral Ali Shamkhani as the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ayatollah Dr Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi appointed Dr Ali Akbar Ahmadian to this position,” the official website of the Iranian presidency said in a statement.

Ahmadian studied strategic management at the National Defense University. He also served as the head of the Strategic Center of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) for 16 years.

Last year, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, appointed Ahmadian as a member of the Expediency Council.

Ahmadian also served as the commander of the IRGC’s Imam Hossein University. Like Shamkhani, Ahmadian has the experience of commanding the IRGC Navy.

He was among those who played a key role in the idea of creating a new naval force and “reciprocal naval operations.”

After the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, Ahmadian served as the deputy commander of the IRGC Navy. He devoted himself to theorizing the great naval experiences of the Sacred Defense, especially against the American aggressions.

He was one of the main architects of the new and innovative naval force of the IRGC, which was formed based on the goals of the Revolution, and was one of the first theoreticians of the idea of asymmetric defense.

Sometime later, given his valuable records, he was appointed as the commander of the IRGC's naval force by the commander-in-chief.

In this role, Ahmadian had the opportunity to bring the idea of asymmetric defense that had started in the Navy to its peak and to establish basic capacities to deal with the threats of great powers in the IRGC Navy.

Ahmadian is a strategist who rose through the ranks of the IRGC to become of the most capable commanders of this force.

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