Iran to set up "defense council," says media

TEHRAN, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Iran plans to establish a "defense council" as part of the country's new governance arrangement, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Friday.

The new council, "the structure of which will soon be finalized," will be tasked with carrying out strategic missions concerning Iran's defense policies, Fars quoted unidentified informed sources as saying.

The decision has been made in line with the finalization of "structural changes" in the country's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), it reported.

Ali Larijani, an advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a former parliament speaker, will probably be appointed at the SNSC's helm in the coming days, and the SNSC's incumbent Secretary Ali Akbar Ahmadian will possibly be responsible for pursuing a number of Iran's "special and strategic cases, involving leading and strategic missions in the country that require management and coordination at the macro level," it reported.

In a post on social media platform X on Wednesday, Iran's Nour News, affiliated with the SNSC, said, "After preparing the necessary ground and making structural reforms, the likeliness has increased for the implementation of imminent changes at the level of (Iran's) certain high-ranking security institutions." Enditem