Mohsen Rezaee, now 71, ran for President of Iran three times — 2009, 2013 and 2021. The war the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran on February 28, 2026 changed that. Maj. Gen. The former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has always remained an institutional insider and an ideologically committed apparatchik of the Islamic Republic, but, despite repeated attempts, he never managed to secure a position at the heart of Iran’s strategic decision making apparatus. Mr. Rezaee is now one of the most important decision makers in war-hit Iran and a close confidant of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
Some in Iran call him the “eternal candidate”.
Principalist faction
Rezaee launched a news site Baztab as a conservative platform to counter the reformist agenda. In March, when Mojtaba was appointed the Supreme Leader after the assassination of his father and predecessor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr. Rezaee was picked as the military adviser of the new leader. The country was under attack. A host of senior leaders were killed in the initial phase of the war — from Ali Khamenei to Ali Larijani , who was the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. Initially Mojtaba opted for replacements for the assassinated leaders and allowed the system to function without any major shake-up. Mr. Mr. Rezaee’s views about the war, Iran’s nuclear programme or its control of the Strait of Hormuz are hardly a secret. President Donald Trump cannot be trusted in negotiations.
In 2002, when reformist Mohammad Khatami was the President, Mr. The 2026 war elevated his position among the top echelons of the Islamic Republic as Mojtaba turned to his hardline loyalists to run the security apparatus.
Rezaee has long belonged to the “principalist” faction of Iran’s political class — the group broadly called conservatives. In July, he said the control of the Strait, a critical waterway connecting the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, was “more important than dozens of atomic bombs”. In an interview with CNN in June, he said the “ball is in Trump’s court”, referring to Iran’s demand to release roughly $24 billion of frozen assets. U.S, according to him. He said Iran was prepared for any U.S. ground invasion, which would be “great for us”. Uranium enrichment, he once stated, is “an inviolable right” of the Islamic Republic.
But earlier this month, he made a host of changes in the government by appointing his loyal supporters to key posts.
