Shamkhani Appointed Secretary of Iran’s Defense Council

Nour News, a media outlet close to Shamkhani, reported that he had been appointed as secretary of the Defense Council of Iran by order of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

The Defense Council was formed after the 12-day war in June 2025 in response to new threats, with the aim of enhancing coordination, cohesion, and efficiency in defense decision-making and strengthening deterrence at senior levels.

Following the publication of the report, Mohammad Mahdi Tabatabaei, the deputy for communications and information at the presidential office, said the Defense Council had been established during the 12-day war as a council operating under the Supreme National Security Council. He added that the presidential decree appointing the council’s secretary was not new and that there had been no necessity to make it public.

According to the outlined mandate, the secretary of the Defense Council is tasked with establishing and managing the council’s secretariat and following up on its specialized programs. These responsibilities include designing and comprehensively strengthening defense preparedness, developing mechanisms to confront emerging threats, creating synergy between other pillars of power of the Islamic Republic and the defense domain, setting frameworks for defense diplomacy, and organizing activities related to strategic communications and cognitive warfare within the strategic defense sphere.

Shamkhani has been present on the council since its formation as the representative of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei./tasnim