Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei surprised many observers when he appointed Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri as chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces June 28, replacing Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, who had held the position for 27 years. One week later, Khamenei continued to replace the leadership of the armed forces, suggesting that Iran was looking for a shift in approach at one of the country's most important military institutions.

On July 5, Khamenei appointed Brig. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi as deputy chief of staff of the armed forces. Mousavi, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War with a background in artillery, was one of the senior commanders of the army. Firouzabadi's former deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashidi, who had held his previous position for 17 years, was appointed as commander of Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters, the engineering conglomerate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Khamenei also appointed Brig. Gen. Ali Abdollahi as the deputy chief of staff for coordination of the Iranian armed forces. Before his appointment, Abdollahi, who is one of the senior commanders of the IRGC, held positions as deputy interior minister for security and deputy chief of general staff of the armed forces for logistics and industrial research. His predecessor, Maj. Gen. Hossein Hassani Saadi, had held the position since 1999.

The chief of staff of the armed forces has the responsibility of coordination between all of Iran's armed services and is one of the closest positions to Khamenei, who is Iran's commander in chief. The position requires planning and coordination between the army, the IRGC and Iran's police. It was created to address differences over military operations between the army and the IRGC during the final years of the Iran-Iraq War.