After almost six months in hiding, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has offered the clearest window yet into his vision for ruling the country, appointing a string of hard-line, veteran military commanders to top security roles.
The overhaul, which took place this month, signals that he plans to keep the nation on a war footing, analysts say — ready for open-ended confrontation with the United States and for keeping a lid on dissent at home among Iranians suffering the economic brunt of the conflict.
The appointments also reflect a leadership that is still struggling to devise a sustainable strategy for deterring Washington, analysts noted, as Tehran seeks a way to end the war without giving up the strategic leverage it has gained, most notably through control over the Strait of Hormuz.
The new security leaders will first have to navigate a period of limbo in the conflict. While the large-scale skirmishes have ebbed, neither Washington nor Tehran appears ready to make concessions to reach an agreement over the Strait of Hormuz and a 60-day deadline to agree a deal over Iran’s nuclear program expired on Monday. The standoff has left the region in a state of uncertainty that could erupt into full-scale war again at any moment.
Among the appointments made by Ayatollah Khamenei, Mohsen Rezaei, who led the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps during the Iran-Iraq war, was named head of the Supreme National Security Council. And Hossein Taeb, a cleric and former intelligence chief, was tapped to run the Basij, a powerful network of paramilitary forces often used to crush protests.
The overhaul also included a new general staff of the armed forces, a new head of the Revolutionary Guards and a commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces — a critical role as the Strait of Hormuz has become so important.
Sina Toossi, an Iran expert at the Center for International Policy, a Washington-based think tank, said, “I would characterize this first and foremost as Mojtaba Khamenei putting his stamp on the national security structure of Iran.”
To many Iranians, that stamp looks familiar.
Most of Ayatollah Khamenei’s appointees are from an older generation of Iranian leaders who were part of the revolution that established the Islamic Republic in 1979 and were commanders in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. In the course of fighting that war, Ayatollah Khamenei fostered close relationships with some of them, including Mr. Rezaei, who was his commander, and Mr. Taeb, who was in his battalion.
“The appointments suggest that, after the enormous vulnerabilities exposed by the war, Mojtaba still trusts the old guard most,” said Omid Memarian, an Iran analyst at DAWN, a Washington-based think tank focused on the Middle East.
Some of the appointees, especially Mr. Rezaei, have historically pushed maximalist military aims. He tried and failed to convince Iranian leadership to extend the war with Iraq rather than agreeing to a cease-fire, believing that Iran could have gained more leverage and a better settlement.
A similar debate is raging in Iran now about how to end the war with the United States.
Moderates in the government, like President Masoud Pezeshkian, say Iran should take advantage of its effective control over the Strait of Hormuz and reach a deal.
Hard-liners, however, want to hold out for more concessions and prefer maintaining an aggressive stance that would discourage the United States from launching new military interventions. They note that the last two wars launched by the United States and Israel, in June 2025 and in February this year, began while they were in negotiations with the Trump administration. They also point to the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran agreed with Washington, which President Trump withdrew from in 2018.
Hadi Borhani, a political commentator and professor of Israeli studies at the University of Tehran, said, “The hard-liners gained immense traction, arguing — and history seems to have backed them — that the West is fundamentally untrustworthy.”
The hard-liners would also argue, Mr. Borhani added, that the only language the West understands is “resistance, military deterrence, and making any Western intervention in our region prohibitively costly.”
Beyond aggressive posturing, Abdolrasool Divsallar, an Iran expert at the Catholic University of Milan, said the appointments reflected Tehran’s struggle to come up with a new approach to deterrence against Washington.
Most of the appointees, including Mr. Rezaei, have backed the idea of returning to the short-lived Memorandum of Understanding that was signed with the Trump administration in June. That document was meant to pave the way to an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.
They have also insisted that they will only return to the vaguely worded deal if implemented under Iran’s reading of the terms — in particular, that Tehran should retain control of the Strait of Hormuz until a final deal is agreed rather than giving up that leverage first.
“At the bottom of this is a sort of pragmatism, a desire to search for a solution,” Mr. Divsallar said. “It is a desire to guarantee their security.”
Ayatollah Khamenei, observers say, has surrounded himself with figures who seem as ready to negotiate, if they deem conditions right, as they are willing to prolong the war when they do not. That is a break with the approach of his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The elder Ayatollah Khamenei, who was killed in the first wave of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, was wary about negotiating with the United States but restrained in confronting Washington militarily.
Under the previous ayatollah, Iran telegraphed missile strikes in response to the Trump administration’s killing of the powerful Quds Force leader, Qassem Soleimani, in 2020. Tehran also gave warning before retaliating after U.S. warplanes joined Israeli strikes on Iran last year.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has shown a greater willingness to initiate conflict with Washington, some analysts say, pointing to Iran’s decision to start the last round of military skirmishes.
He also used belligerent language when announcing his new appointments, including urging Mr. Rezaei to be ready for “powerful offensive operations against the enemy.”
Mr. Toossi, the Iran expert at the Center for International Policy, said that “doesn’t mean Iran is turning away from diplomacy with the United States. It suggests a harder approach to diplomacy.”
“Iran is willing to engage in negotiations to end the war,” he added, “but is also prepared for a long conflict rather than accept an incomplete or temporary settlement that leaves it vulnerable to renewed U.S. pressure or attack.”
This strategy has serious implications for Iran’s roughly 90 million people, who are struggling with an economy in free-fall and trapped by the constant risk of a return to all-out war. Dismal conditions fueled a nationwide protests before the war that Iranian security forces crushed with deadly force. The risk of future protests as the economy continues to struggle looms large.
“Iranian society increasingly resembles a boiling pot that could erupt with little warning,” said Mr. Memarian, the Iran analyst at DAWN. “A confrontational strategy abroad becomes much easier to sustain if the leadership believes it has the capacity to suppress its political consequences at home.”
That is one reason the appointment of Mr. Taeb to head the Basij is notable. He has long been one of Ayatollah Khamenei’s closest allies and had amassed significant power as the head of intelligence for the Revolutionary Guards.
The supreme leader’s father dismissed Mr. Taeb as intelligence chief in 2022. Mr. Taeb had become a contentious figure even within the Iranian political system, with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former president, accusing him of fabricating accusations against political opponents.
Ayatollah Khamenei called on Mr. Taeb to strengthen the Basij’s “public intelligence network” when he announced his appointment last week, a move that experts say indicates that the group will have an expanded role in domestic surveillance and repression.
“Mojtaba may be willing to take risks in confronting the United States that even his father avoided in his final years,” Mr. Memarian said. “The question is whether Iran’s political system — and, more important, Iranian society — can absorb the consequences of that gamble.”
Sanam Mahoozi contributed reporting.