PARIS — Earlier this month Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei reshuffled Tehran’s top security team, putting his own personal stamp on the appointments and readying the Islamic republic for a long-term confrontation with the United States.

Khamenei, in power since his father Ali Khamenei was killed at the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran in February, has yet to be seen in public since taking on the top job and his health and influence remain uncertain.

But on August 9 and 10 he filled key security posts — many of which became vacant after previous incumbents were killed in the war — with loyal, veteran figures hailing from the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Iran’s ideological army, which has a long history of antagonism with the US.

They included Mohsen Rezaei, 71, a former commander of the IRGC for almost all the 1980s war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Hossein Taeb, 63, a former Guards intelligence chief who stepped down in mysterious circumstances in 2022.

The appointments are “indicative of the adoption of a more risk-ready, confrontational stance”, said Jason Brodsky, policy director of the US-based United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) think tank.

“These appointments are demonstrative of Iran believing it will be in a wartime footing for the foreseeable future,” he said, adding that Khamenei has brought back “the old guard” of the IRGC.

It remains to be seen where the appointments will leave diplomacy with the US, after the expiry of a 60-day deadline for an agreement. The talks have so far been led by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf who has become seen as a less hardline figure.