Decoding Iran’s Politics: The Supreme National Security Council

This is the fourth article in IranWire’s series Decoding Iranian Politics. The series examines the building rift between Iran’s various political factions, goes behind the scenes of the country’s fiercest political scandals, and looks at how citizens are responding to the country's political climate, as well as taking stock of some of the most defining moments in recent history.

 

What you Need to Know about the Highest Security Council in Iran

According to Iran’s constitution, the Supreme National Security Council (شورای عالی امنیت ملی), or the SNSC, is the country’s highest decision-making body for national security affairs. 

Over the last few years, this council been the subject of widespread controversies within Iran’s political scene. This is due to the SNSC’s unclear role when it comes to making decisions on a number of Iran’s most complex issues.

President Rouhani heads the council, but according to the constitution, its decisions must be approved by the Supreme Leader. As a result, when the president and the Leader have different views on sensitive issues, there is always controversy over the degree of authority each of them has in the “ultimate decision” of the council.

In addition, a number of the most controversial enterprises pursued by the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) are not discussed in the SNSC. For instance, this council has no authority over the sensitive operations of the Qods Force, the IRGC’s branch responsible for extraterritorial operations. This force reports to Supreme Leader, and to him only.

In general, when Ayatollah Khamenei has a firm opinion on a sensitive issue, the SNSC cannot overrule the Leader’s decision. One example is the house arrest of the Green Movement leaders, who helped spur on the post-2009 election protests. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Zahra Rahnavard were placed under house arrest in 2011 based on a SNSC directive that was backed by the Leader. When Rouhani became president in 2013, he tried to lift the house arrest within the framework of the SNSC. However, since Ayatollah Khamenei did not support these efforts, the order has not yet been lifted.

 

What is the SNSC’s Official Responsibility?

The SNSC was established in 1989, after the revision of Iran’s constitution. Before this, a similar institution, the Supreme Council of Defence, was in charge of major military decision-making, especially with respect to the Iran-Iraq war. This council was far less involved in political and security affairs when compared to the SNSC. 

As stated in Iran’s constitution, the SNSC is supposed to determine “the defence and national security policies of the country” within the framework of “general policies determined by the Leader”. The council is also in charge of coordinating the state’s activities in political, intelligence, social, cultural and economic arenas based on “the general policies of defence and national security,” as well as mobilizing the country’s resources “to face the internal and external threats.”

 

What Kind of Issues Does the SNSC Decide on?

The SNSC can handle any issue or crisis relating to national security at the highest national level, as long as the majority of its members decide it warrants the council’s attention. In some cases, the Supreme Leader hands specific files or matters to the council for decision-making.

During the presidency of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, which saw the establishment of the SNSC, protests broke out in several cities in Iran, and the council took decisions regarding the state’s response.

The most famous examples of such protests were those that occurred, mainly for economic reasons, in Mashhad, Iran's second largest city, in May 1992; in Qazvin, northwest Tehran, in August 1994: and in Eslamshahr, a poor town near the capital, in April 1995. In each of these civil actions, police were unable to control the situation, so the SNSC decided that the IRGC should take over responsibility for breaking up the protests. 

Under the presidency of Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005), the SNSC took a similar decision in the aftermath of the July 1999 student protests in Tehran, which erupted in reaction to the judiciary’s banning of a reformist daily newspaper, Salaam. When police and hardline paramilitary forces attacked the students, the demonstrations turned into anti-regime protests, and IRGC forces took control of the capital following a SNSC directive. Also under Khatami, the council made key decisions following the 9-11 attacks on the United States. After the US military attack on Afghanistan in 2001, the SNSC decided to indirectly cooperate with US efforts to topple the Taliban. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the council’s priority was to keep Iran away from war at any cost.

Under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the SNSC again approved that the IRGC should be put in charge of cracking down on the post-2009 election protests. The house arrest of Green Movement leaders began during the same period under a directive from the SNSC. However, during Ahmadinejad’s presidential term, the council’s most famous responsibility was formulating the nuclear talks, which were led by two consecutive secretaries of the SNSC, Ali Larijani and Saeed Jalili. 

The council formulated the nuclear negotiations under Hassan Rouhani too, but responsibility for holding the talks was assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When Iran and the P5+1 countries brokered a deal in 2015 — the final nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the SNSC approved it in September 2016. Finally, on December 2016, the Leader ordered the implementation of the deal under a set of conditions. 

There are several files being handled by the SNSC that are still ongoing. The country’s water crisis is one of them, which is a result of severe drought and decades of mismanaged water resources. Due to the widespread social, economic and national security dimensions of this issue, the SNSC has recognized it as a security crisis, assigning a special committee to look after it and provide solutions. 

 

Who Sits on the Council?

The following officials are members of the SNSC: The president, the speaker of the parliament, the head of the judiciary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Intelligence, and the head of the Management and Planning Organization. According to the council's agenda, the commander of the IRGC, the commander of the Artesh (the regular army) or the minister holding the relevant brief for a particular topic being discussed may participate in the SNSC’s sessions, too. For instance, if the subject is about universities, the Minister of Science and Higher Education may be invited the SNSC session. 

Apart from the above officials, the Leader also has two representatives on the SNSC. Traditionally, one of these representatives also has the role of secretary for the SNSC. Officially, the president appoints the secretary, but the appointment requires approval from the Supreme Leader. However, this coordination between the Leader and the president regarding the appointment of the secretary of the SNSC is not enshrined in law. The current secretary of the SNSC is Ali Shamkhani, one of the most prominent commanders of the IRGC during Iran-Iraq War, who enjoys good relations with both Hassan Rouhani and Ali Khamenei.

Besides this, contrary to common belief, the presence of IRGC and Artesh commanders as permanent members of the SNSC is also not enshrined in the constitution.  And yet, the commanders of these two military forces always participate in the SNSC’s sessions. They are, effectively, permanent members.

In all, half of the 12 existing members of the SNSC are direct appointees of the Leader: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs, the commanders of the IRGC and Artesh, the head of the judiciary and the two Leader's representatives in the council. And one of the representatives, also secretary, is indirectly appointed by the Leader, since he must approve the president’s decision on who fills this role. In addition, it should be borne in mind that the Ministers of Intelligence and the Interior, as members of the SNSC, are among those cabinet ministers who must be vetted by the Leader too. 

 

What’s the Difference between the SNSC and the State Security Council?

A number of reports and analysis published on Iran’s security apparatus mistake the SNSC for another government institution, the State Security Council (شورای امنیت کشور), or the SSC. 

The SSC is a subset of the SNSC under the chairmanship of the Minister of the Interior (currently Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli). Unlike the SNSC, which is in charge of external and internal security issues, the SSC only deals with internal security.

The latter council, as the coordinator of security and law enforcement agencies in Iran, is at the top of Provincial Security Councils, which operate in all provinces.

However, the SSC has, in practice, quite limited powers. For instance, it has no authority over the IRGC —  which is, after all, deeply involved in security affairs.