Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr

Sardar Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr
محمدباقر ذوالقدر
Zolghadr in 2023
Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council
In office 24 March 2026 – 9 August 2026
Appointed by	Masoud Pezeshkian
President	Masoud Pezeshkian
Supreme Leader	Mojtaba Khamenei
Preceded by	Ali Larijani
Succeeded by	Mohsen Rezaee
Member of Expediency Discernment Council
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 September 2022
Appointed by	Ali Khamenei
President	Ebrahim Raisi Mohammad Mokhber (acting) Masoud Pezeshkian
Supreme Leader	Ali Khamenei Mojtaba Khamenei
Chairman	Sadiq Larijani
Secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council
In office 19 September 2021 – 9 May 2026
Appointed by	Sadiq Larijani
President	Ebrahim Raisi Mohammad Mokhber (acting) Masoud Pezeshkian
Supreme Leader	Ali Khamenei Mojtaba Khamenei
Chairman	Sadiq Larijani
Preceded by	Mohsen Rezaee
Succeeded by	Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei
Other posts held Deputy Judiciary Chief for Strategic Affairs In office 13 May 2012 – 19 September 2021 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Hassan Rouhani Ebrahim Raisi Mohammad Mokhber (acting) Masoud Pezeshkian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Preceded by Office Established Succeeded by Mohammad Sahebkar Khorasani Social Deputy and Head of Crime Prevention of the Judiciary In office 2010–2012 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Preceded by ? Succeeded by Seyed Alireza Sadra Hosseini Head of Election Headquarters of Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces In office 2016–2017 President Hassan Rouhani Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Preceded by Office Established Succeeded by Vacant Deputy Minister of Interior for Security Affairs In office 23 November 2005 – 6 December 2007 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Preceded by Ali-Asghar Ahmadi Succeeded by Abbas Mohtaj Deputy Minister of Interior In office 23 November 2005 – 6 December 2007 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Deputy for Basij Affairs of the General Staff of the Armed Forces In office 2007–2009 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Preceded by Office Established Succeeded by Akbar Ebrahimzadeh Deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps In office 13 September 1997 – 30 April 2006 President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Mohammad Khatami Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Preceded by Yahya Rahim Safavi Succeeded by Morteza Rezaee Chief of Joint Staff of IRGC In office 1989–1997 President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Preceded by Mohammad Forouzandeh Succeeded by Hossein Alaei Commander of Ramadan Headquarters In office 1985–1988 President Ali Khamenei Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini Preceded by Morteza Rezaee Succeeded by Ahmad Kazemi
Personal details
Born	c. 1954 or 1955 (age 70–71) Fasa, Pahlavi Iran
Relations	Kazem Gharibabadi (son-in-law)
Alma mater	University of Tehran (BEc)
Military service
Allegiance	Iran
Branch/service	IRGC
Years of service	1979–2010
Rank	Brigadier General
Battles/wars	Iran–Iraq War

Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr (born 1954) is an Iranian politician and former military officer who serves as a political advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran. He previously served as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from March to August 2026 and as secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council from 2021 to 2026.

Before the 1979 Islamic revolution, Zolghadr was active in carrying out attacks against the monarchy, and in 1978 he killed an American engineer and an oil company manager. He served as the commander of the IRGC Irregular Warfare Headquarters, as well as the Ramazan Headquarters, which formed the basis for the Quds Force, the IRGC’s foreign branch that conducts asymmetric warfare outside of Iran. He was later a Brigadier General in the IRGC, with whom he served from 1979 to 2010. He was the Chief of the Joint Staff of the IRGC from 1989 to 1997, and Second-in-Command of the IRGC from 1997 to 2006.

After he helped Mahmoud Ahmadinejad come to power with a "multilayered plan," from 2005 to 2007 he was Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs and Police under Ahmadinejad. From 2012 to 2021 he was the deputy for strategic, societal–security and crime prevention affairs in the judicial system of Iran. In March 2026, he was appointed Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, succeeding Ali Larijani, who was assassinated by an Israeli airstrike during the war.

He is known for his hard-line views, and said on 24 March 2026 that the IRGC should gain more control over the country. The Economist described him as an "IRGC apparatchik".

Early life and education

Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr was born in 1954 in Fasa, near Shiraz, Iran. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tehran, prior to Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Military career

Before the 1979 Islamic revolution, he was a member of the Mansourun guerrilla group, an Islamist militant organization active at the time. In 1978 he, along with Mohsen Rezaei, killed an American engineer and an oil company manager. He is reportedly one of the founders of Ansar-e Hezbollah, a conservative paramilitary organization in Iran.

During the Iran–Iraq War, he co-headed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' educational division for military training, as well as guerrilla operations. He later served as the commander of the IRGC Irregular Warfare Headquarters, as well as the Ramazan Headquarters, which formed the basis for the Quds Force, the IRGC’s foreign branch that conducts asymmetric warfare outside of Iran.

He was the Chief of the Joint Staff of the IRGC from 1989 to 1997. Zolghadr served as the deputy commander of the IRGC from 1997 to 2005. In 2007, Zolghadr was appointed the deputy chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces for Basij-related affairs.

Political career

Following the Iranian Revolution, Zolghadr joined the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization and belonged to its right-wing faction, having previously been a member of Mansouroun guerrilla organization along with later fellow IRGC servicemen Rezaei, Shamkhani and Rashid.

After he helped Mahmoud Ahmadinejad come to power with a "multilayered plan," from 2005 to 2007 he was Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs and Police under Ahmadinejad. In April 2007, he warned the U.S. that if it were to attack Iran, Iran would fire “tens of thousands of missiles at American targets every day."

Beginning in 2021, Zolghadr led Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council. The council advises Iran’s Supreme Leader.

In March 2026, he was appointed Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, succeeding Ali Larijani, who had been killed. In August 2026, he resigned from his post and was replaced by Mohsen Rezaee, an advisor for Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

Judicial career

In 2010, Zolghadr began serving as an advisor to the Chief Justice Sadiq Larijani, the brother of Ali Larijani. He was appointed the deputy Judiciary chief for strategic affairs on 14 May 2012.

Personal life

Zolghadr is married to Sedigheh Begum Hejazi, who has served as Director-General of the Office of Women and Family Affairs at the Organization of Islamic Culture and Communication. His son-in-law, Kazem Gharibabadi, is an Iranian diplomat who has represented Iran in Vienna at international organizations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Published works

Zolghadr authored Qesse-ye Ghorbat-e Gharbi (Persian: قصه‌ی غربت غربی; English: The Tale of Western Estrangement), published in 1381 (2002–2003) in Iran by Dowrye Aliye Jang. The work, written in Persian, is a short volume (38 pages) that engages with themes related to Western society and culture, framed through a critical and ideological lens.

See also

• List of Iranian officials

External links

Media related to Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr at Wikimedia Commons