Ali Shamkhani

Early life and education

Shamkhani was born on 29 September 1955 in Ahvaz, Khuzestan, Iran. His family is of Iranian Arab origin. After completing high school, Shamkhani’s family relocated to Los Angeles in the United States, where his two brothers remained, one pursuing studies in medicine and the other in mechanical engineering. Shamkhani, however, returned to Iran, citing cultural reasons for his decision, and studied engineering at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz. While at college, before the Iranian Revolution, Shamkhani was member of a clandestine Islamist guerilla group named Mansouroun (), engaging in armed struggle against the Pahlavi dynasty. After the revolution, he joined the Islamist Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization.

Career

Shamkhani served as commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy with the rank of rear admiral. Later he also commanded the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy in addition to the IRGC Navy. He was appointed the Minister of Revolutionary Guards in 1988.

He held the post of the Minister of defence and Armed Forces Logistics from August 1997 until August 2005 in the government of Mohammad Khatami. Shamkani was replaced by Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar in the post. Shamkhani also ran for office in the 2001 Iranian presidential elections, coming in third.

He was the director of the Iranian think tank Center for Strategic Studies from 2005 to 2013. He was also military advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

On 10 September 2013, Shamkhani was appointed to secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) of Iran by president Hassan Rouhani.

After the US airstrike on 3 January 2020 killed the head of IRGC's Quds force Qasem Soleimani as he travelled in Baghdad, Iraq, Shamkhani said on 6 January that Iran's response would be a "historic nightmare" for the US: "Even if the weakest of these scenarios gains a consensus, the implementation of it can be a historic nightmare for the Americans... The entirety of the resistance forces will retaliate," he said to the Fars News Agency. The SNSC was assessing 13 revenge scenarios.

At a Baghdad news conference after meeting with Iraqi politicians on 7 March 2020, Shamkhani said "Zionists are against regional security."

Shamkhani resigned as the country's top security official in May 2023. The New York Times disclosed that the Iranian government removed Shamkhani from his position as a national security official following scrutiny over his close ties with a senior British spy. Speculation about his departure arose in January after his former ally, Iranian-British politician and military officer Alireza Akbari, was executed for espionage on behalf of the UK. Iran International claimed that Shamkhani was forced to resign after his involvement as a key member of the government circle linked to Naji Sharifi-Zindashti, who allegedly headed a cartel engaged in kidnapping and drug trafficking in collaboration with the IRGC, was made public.

In 2025, Shamkhani is overseeing the United States–Iran negotiations aimed at reaching a nuclear peace agreement.

Views

Shamkhani was a vocal critic and opponent of the JCPOA, and as the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council he is reported to have blocked the revival of the nuclear agreement in 2020. Reports suggest that his opposition to the agreement stemmed from his family's stake in the Admiral Shipping Company, which profited from bypassing Western sanctions that the deal would have lifted.

He has also been quoted as promoting Iranian development of nuclear weapons, as in an October 2025 interview he stated "If I returned to the defence portfolio, I would move toward building an atomic bomb", and declared that if he could return to the 1990s, "we would definitely build the atomic bomb".

Controversies

On 30 July 2020, the US Department of the Treasury announced a sweeping Iran-related sanctions action targeting the Admiral global shipping network, believed to have been founded by Ali Shamkhani - the name referring to his rank of rear admiral, and controlled by his sons, Mohammad Hossein and Hassan. According to the Treasury report, Ali Shamkhani took advantage of his political influence at the highest levels of the Iranian regime and through corrupt practices assisted his sons in building and operating a fleet of tankers and containerships moving Iranian and Russian petroleum and other cargo worldwide, shipments allegedly included Iranian missiles, drone parts and other military goods, sent to Russia in exchange for petroleum. The network, comprising front companies, ship managers, and frequently reflagged vessels, controls a "significant portion of Iran's crude oil exports" and generates a profit of tens of billions of dollars, benefiting the Iranian regime and the Shamkhani family. The Treasury noted that the Shamkhani family's ill-gotten wealth enables access to exclusive privileges unavailable to ordinary Iranians, including international property ownership and foreign passports, allowing them to travel the world undetected while hiding their connection to Iran. Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury, is quoted as saying **"**The Shamkhani family's shipping empire highlights how the Iranian regime elites leverage their positions to accrue massive wealth and fund the regime's dangerous behavior".

In October 2025, a leaked wedding video of Shamkani's daughter Setayesh (Fatemeh) prompted sharp criticism for hypocrisy and ostentation. In the video, the bride is seen wearing a low-cut, strapless dress which shows her cleavage, her mother is shown in a similarly revealing blue lace evening gown with bare back and sides, other women at the event are seen not wearing a Hijab. Contrasting the video with Shamkhani's history of enforcing Islamic rules on women and girls and violently cracking down on the 2022 Hijab protests, critics have accused Shamkhani with practising an immodest lifestyle, while preaching and enforcing piety in public. Commentators also noted the event's opulence, reportedly a $20,000 affair at a luxury Tehran hotel, even as the Islamic Republic faces inflation and an economic crisis. The behavior in the video was said to be a display of "disregard for conservative Islamic values" as well as adoption of Western-style wedding traditions. Allies of Shamkhani claimed the footage came from a women-only segment and defended Shamkhani's conduct. According to the New York Times, Iranian political journalist and editor, Amir Hossein Mosalla, said the video exhibited that "the regime officials themselves have no belief in their own laws that they support, they only want to make people's lives miserable". In the aftermath of the video leak, a Clubhouse discussion of political commentators and veterans of the Iran-Iraq War demanded his full resignation and a public apology. Critics further cited accusations of corruption and sanctions-evasion networks linked to his family.

In October 2025, after the wedding video leak, allegations surfaced regarding the participation of Shamkhani in the murder of Malek Boroujerdi, director of the state-owned Iranian National Oil Company, who was shot dead by gunmen in the city of Ahvaz in December 1978. The murder was perpetrated by two gunmen, who were never named until allegations were made tying it to Shamkhani, who was an organizer in Iran's underground Islamist movements at the time, and Mohsen Razaei, former commander of the IRGC. According to Boroujerdi's son, Mehrzad, dean of the School of Humanities at the University of Missouri, Malek was on a list of ten individuals targeted for their resistance to the revolution, and he was executed by the two, who came to the hospital later to confirm that he was dead. Mehrzad Boroujerdi addressed Shamkhani in an instagram post and stated "You are the same person who assassinated my father, Malek Mohammad Boroujerdi, in Ahvaz in January 1978, along with your accomplice Mohsen Rezaei". He added: "The masks have fallen; what remains is your true face, the face of hypocrisy, power-seeking, and crime... In my eyes, you, who got your hands stained with blood at the age of 23, are just as despicable at the age of 70. May your shame be eternal, Admiral Murderer".

Sanctions

On 10 January 2020, the US State Department extended its sanctions under Executive Order 13876 to Shamkhani and seven other individuals, and "twenty-two entities and three vessels pursuant to Executive Order 13871" as well as a Chinese steel trading organization under the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act. According to secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, Shamkhani and other senior Regime Officials were sanctioned for "their involvement and complicity in Tuesday's ballistic missile strikes". according to the statement, the sanctions will continue until all terrorist support and promotion by the Iranian regime ends.

On 20 February 2020, the US Treasury Department extended its sanctions again under Executive Order 13876 to Shamkhani amongst other individuals, following "the disqualification of several thousand electoral candidates by Iran's Guardian Council".

Personal life

Ali Shamkhani is the father of Hossein Shamkhani, said to successfully manage international oil trading operations despite U.S. sanctions targeting Iranian oil. According to U.S. officials, Hossein is a major figure in the supply of Iranian arms to Russia.

Awards and honors

In 2003, Shamkhani received the Shoja'at Medal, the highest military medal from President Mohammad Khatami. He was also honored for his eight years service as minister of defense in 2005. In 2004, Shamkhani received the Order of Abdulaziz Al Saud, the highest award in Saudi Arabia from King Fahd for his prominent role in the design and implementation in developing relations with Arabic countries in the Persian Gulf. He was the first Iranian minister to receive the medal and received medals from the presidents of Syria and Lebanon in February 2004.

Assassination attempt

On 13 June 2025, during the early stages of the Iran–Israel war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reportedly carried out an airstrike targeting senior Iranian officials, including Ali Shamkhani. Some early Iranian media reports claimed that Shamkhani had been killed in the strike, but on 20 June 2025, Iranian media confirmed that Shamkhani had survived the attack and was in stable condition after sustaining severe injuries. Shamkhani was later seen attending a funeral ceremony honoring Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists killed during the conflict.

Writings

Help Us, published in 2011, is a collection of Shamkhani's letters written early in the Iran–Iraq War addressing shortages in ammunition and weaponry. It also consists of interviews. Compiled by Ahad Gudarziani, the book was published by Sureh Mehr Publication, and the title comes from the opening sentence of a letter.

Notes

References

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