Ali Shamkhani (29 September 1955-) was an Iranian politician and Admiral who served as Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran from 10 September 2013, succeeding Saeed Jalili.
Biography[]
Shamkhani was born in Ahvaz, Khuzestan to an ethnically Arab family. Before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, he was a member of the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization, an Islamist guerilla group opposing Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and studied engineering. He later served as commander of the IRGC navy and was Minister of Defense from 1997 to 2005. Shamkhani was later the director of the Iranian Armed Forces' Centre for Strategic Studies from 2005 to 2013, when he was appointed Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.