Updated on: August 11, 2026 / 3:06 PM EDT
/ CBS News
There have been some significant appointments from Iran's new — and still unseen — Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, as he continues to reshape the country's military and national security leadership.
Six senior military leaders were appointed in total, including Ali Abdollahi, who replaced Abdolrahim Mousavi as chief of staff of the armed forces.
Mohsen Rezaei has been appointed secretary of Iran's national security council, the Supreme National Security Council, or SNSC, on which he will also serve as a representative for Khamenei. Rezaei is one of the most experienced figures in the Islamic Republic's security establishment. He commanded the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, which is a branch of the Iranian military, for 16 years, including during much of the Iran-Iraq war.
Ahmad Vahidi, another IRGC veteran and former Quds Force commander who previously served as both interior and defense minister, has also now been formally appointed commander-in-chief of the IRGC. He had already been serving in the role following the killing of Iranian military officer Mohammad Pakpour.
Taken together, the appointments may signal the new supreme leader's move from succession to consolidation, as he places some of the Islamic Republic's most experienced military and security figures into key institutions that would manage both another confrontation and any eventual negotiations. They also suggest a tightening of coordination between the IRGC, the rest of the military and the country's broader national security apparatus, which is new.
The alleged Houthi strikes that left at least six people dead aboard a cargo vessel off Yemen are the first known deaths from Houthi attacks on shipping in the region, since the latest bout of fighting in the country began.
The deadly incident in the Bab el-Mandeb strait came amid Houthi attacks on the government-held port city of Mokha on the Red Sea and other areas of the country, which killed dozens of government troops and civilians since last week, according to the Yemeni military.
The strikes are part of an escalation by the Houthis against government forces in Yemen and oil facilities in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government, and the kingdom's shipping in the Red Sea.
The Houthi attacks could reignite Yemen's civil war following a 2022 truce, and open a new front in the Middle East war.
Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the Houthis' chief negotiator and spokesperson, accused Saudi Arabia in a social media post of exploiting the ceasefire to tighten an air and sea blockade it imposed in 2015.
He said the Houthis are open for negotiations but any settlement must include lifting the blockade.
Iran is rejecting comments by President Trump, saying that since Iran is seeking compensation as part of any peace talks, he'll demand the same.
The Trump administration is hoping that months of bombing have pushed Iran's economy to a breaking point that will force its leadership to cave to demands to end its nuclear program and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil and natural gas tankers.
The president on Monday said that since Iran is seeking compensation as part of any peace talks, he now intends to demand the same for the U.S. side. It's part of a larger pivot this weekend by Trump to argue that Iran is now on the cusp of financially collapsing, even though it has already endured decades of financial sanctions, which are often a longer-term strategy rather than an immediate tool of warfare that can halt a conflict.
