Supreme National Security Council

Supreme National Security Council (SNSC; Persian: شورای عالی امنیت ملی Showrāye Āliye Amniyate Mellī also Supreme Council for National Security) is the national security council of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The current secretary of the Supreme National Security Council is Ali Akbar Ahmadian. He was appointed to position of secretary by President Ebrahim Raisi on 22 May 2023. The council was formed for the protection and support of national interests and Islamic revolution and territorial integrity and national sovereignty of the country. This institution was founded during the 1989 revision of the constitution.^[1]

Supreme National Security Council شورای عالی امنیت ملی
Leadership
Chairman	President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian since 28 July 2024
Secretary	Ali Akbar Ahmadian since 22 May 2023
Seats	23
Meeting place
Tehran, Iran

The responsibilities of the council are defined by the constitution as:

1. Determining the defense and national security policies of the country within the framework of general policies determined by the Leader.
2. Coordination of political activities, intelligence, social, cultural and economic fields relating to general policies of defense and national security.
3. Exploitation of material and intellectual resources of the country for facing the internal and external threats.

Composition

This National Security Council is mandated by Article 176 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran to be presided over by the president of the country.^[2] The Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei selects the secretary of the Supreme council.^[3] The decisions of the Council are effective after the confirmation by the Supreme Leader.^[4] Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) are at the top of the foreign policy decisions process.

Nuclear policy

Supreme National Security Council formulates the country's nuclear policy. The nuclear policies formulated by the council would become effective if they are confirmed by the Supreme Leader.^[5] The secretary of the Supreme council was the chief nuclear negotiator of Iran until 5 September 2013 when responsibility for nuclear talks was assigned to the ministry of foreign affairs.^[6]

List of secretaries

№	Secretary		Tenure		Political position	Appointed by	Supreme Leader
	Name	Picture	Took office	Left office
1	Hassan Rouhani		12 October 1989[7]	15 August 2005	Right wing	Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani	Ali Khamenei
						Mohammad Khatami
2	Ali Larijani		15 August 2005	20 October 2007	Principlist	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
3	Saeed Jalili		20 October 2007	10 September 2013
4	Ali Shamkhani		10 September 2013	22 May 2023	Reformist	Hassan Rouhani
						Ebrahim Raisi
5	Ali Akbar Ahmadian		22 May 2023	Incumbent	Principlist	Ebrahim Raisi
						Masoud Pezeshkian

Members

As of 2025, following members are:^[8][9]

#	Appointer	Ex officio member	Current officeholder	Position in the Supreme Council
1	Popular election	President	Masoud Pezeshkian	Chairman
2	Indirect election	Speaker of the Parliament	Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf	Member
3	Supreme Leader	Chief Justice	Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i
4			Ali Akbar Ahmadian	Secretary[a]
5			Saeed Jalili	Member
6		Chief of the General Staff	MG Abdolrahim Mousavi
7		Chief of the Army	MG Amir Hatami
8		Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps	MG Mohammad Pakpour
9	President	Minister of Foreign Affairs	Abbas Araghchi
10		Minister of the Interior	BG Eskandar Momeni
11		Minister of Intelligence	Esmaeil Khatib
12		Head of Plan and Budget Organization	Hamid Pourmohammadi
13		Minister related with the Subject of Agenda of the Council	Other Cabinet Ministers	Temporary member

See also

• Politics of Iran
• History of the Islamic Republic of Iran