Ali Shamkhani (29 September 1955 – 28 February 2026) was an Iranian naval officer and politician who served as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran from 2013 to 2023. He had previously served as commander of both the IRGC Navy and the Artesh Navy. Shamkhani was a member of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran and political advisor of the supreme leader of Iran from 2023. He was also one of the political appointees overseeing the Iran–United States negotiations aimed at reaching a nuclear peace agreement.

In June 2025, Shamkhani was severely injured in an Israeli airstrike during the Twelve-Day War. Initial reports mistakenly claimed he had been killed, but he later reappeared in public. However, Shamkhani was killed eight months later in February 2026, during the 2026 Iran war.

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 (lit. 'The Victors'), engaging in armed struggle against the Pahlavi dynasty. After the revolution, he joined the Islamist Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organisation.

Shamkhani served as commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy with the rank of rear admiral and later also commanded the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, overseeing both naval forces simultaneously for eight years after the Iran–Iraq War, during which he had been deputy commander-in-chief of the IRGC. 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. Shamkhani 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 secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) by president Hassan Rouhani, a position that he held for nearly 10 years until May 2023. During his time in the SNSC, he was known for his critical stance on the Iran nuclear deal, with reports indicating he opposed efforts to revive the agreement between Iran and the United States.

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.