Ali Azmaei named new IRGC Navy chief without formal Khamenei decree

No formal appointment decree has been published for Azmaei, whose predecessor was killed in an attack on Bandar Abbas on March 26.

Top IRGC appointments are normally announced through decrees issued by the supreme leader, but no such decree has been published by Mojtaba Khamenei who has not been seen in public since he reportedly suffered injuries in the early hours of the war.

In a message issued Saturday for the funeral of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Azmaei said IRGC naval forces and “guardians of the strategic Strait of Hormuz” would continue Khamenei’s path, adding that “divine revenge” against what he called US and Israeli terrorists was not far off.

Azmaei had commanded the IRGC Navy’s Fifth Naval Region since its formation in 2012 and previously served as deputy commander of the IRGC Navy’s First Naval Region.

He was promoted to brigadier general by Ali Khamenei in April 2022 and has been under US sanctions since 2019. The US has sanctioned him as Ali Ozma’i.

The announcement comes as several senior military posts in the Islamic Republic have changed hands without the publication of formal decrees since Khamenei’s death.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post written in Arabic on X Saturday that representatives from more than 70 countries attended Ali Khamenei’s funeral, including what he called Iran’s “loyal Arab brothers.”

“Iran is pleased to have received representatives from more than seventy countries who chose to participate in honoring our Supreme Leader,” Araghchi wrote.

He said the commemoration would remain an “everlasting memory” in Iran’s shared relations with those countries.

US President Donald Trump said he was following Ali Khamenei’s funeral and suggested Iranian officials who gathered there could be targeted, but said Washington would not do so because it needs people to negotiate with, Axios reported Saturday.

“They are all there. One shot [and we can take them all out], but we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with,” Trump said.

Trump added Iran was “begging to make a deal,” but that both sides had agreed to pause talks for a week until events around Khamenei’s funeral end.

Alireza Panahian, a hardline cleric close to the office of Iran's supreme leader, said Tehran should be willing to sacrifice all its national interests to avenge Ali Khamenei, the IRGC-linked Fars news agency reported Saturday.

“We are ready to give up all our national interests to avenge our martyred imam, but we will take revenge,” Panahian said during his funeral.

“We will give up everything we have, but we will avenge our master,” he added.

Iran’s acting defense minister Majid Ebn al-Reza said Tehran signed a ceasefire understanding at the request of friendly regional countries despite its distrust of the United States, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported Saturday.

He said the Islamic Republic would give a “necessary and decisive” response if commitments under the understanding are violated.

Ebn al-Reza made the remarks in a meeting with Malaysia’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Mohamad Sabu, who traveled to Tehran as a special envoy to attend Ali Khamenei’s funeral.