Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has revived the Strategic Council for Foreign Policy, a body he created in 2006 that has been largely dormant in recent years, in a possible effort to present a counterweight to some of President Hassan Rouhani’s pro-Western orientations.
A recent decree issued by Khamenei’s office, replacing three out of five council members and adding a sixth, gives prominence to former senior officials under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, including Saeed Jalili, the former nuclear negotiator and the supreme leader’s representative to the National Security Council.