Veteran Iranian politician Ali Larijani was one of the most powerful figures in the Islamic Republic, a close adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei until the supreme leader’s death in an airstrike last month.
Larijani, 67, was killed in an air attack as he was visiting his daughter in the eastern outskirts of a Tehran suburb, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said on Tuesday.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier on Tuesday that Larijani had been killed in an Israeli strike.
Following are some facts about Larijani.
He was born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1958. Larijani was head of Iran’s state media, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, for 10 years before stepping down in 2004 to become a security adviser to Khamenei, the country’s top authority.
Larijani ran in the 2005 presidential race. He came well behind several other candidates, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who went on to win. In the same year, he was appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s top security body.
He was also Iran’s top nuclear negotiator from 2005 to 2007. He took a tough line on the nuclear issue. He said that if Iran took incentives that were being offered by the European Union at the time in return for Iran giving up its nuclear fuel cycle, it would be like exchanging “a pearl for a candy bar.”
Larijani quit as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator in October 2007 under Ahmadinejad.
Larijani then served as the country’s parliament speaker from 2008 to 2020, during which he played a major role in securing the approval of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and other countries.
In 2020, Khamenei appointed Larijani as his political adviser and as a member of the Expediency Council.
(With input from Xinhua, Reuters)
