Veteran Iranian politician Ali Larijani, who announced on Sunday 1 March that a temporary leadership council would be formed following an airstrike that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reemerged last year as one of the most powerful figures in the security hierarchy.
He managed a broad portfolio, from nuclear negotiations to Tehran’s regional relations and the violent suppression of internal unrest.
An insider of Iran’s religious establishment, hailing from one of the country’s leading clerical families, Larijani oversaw Iran’s efforts to achieve a nuclear agreement with the United States, just one month after Washington imposed sanctions on him in January, accusing him of directing a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.
He accused the United States and Israel of attempting to plunder and dismember Iran and warned “separatist groups” of a harsh response if they proceeded with any action, state television reported on Sunday 1/3, nearly 24 hours after the launch of a wave of attacks against Iran.
Iran’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi was also killed in the strikes, Iran TV reported.
Appointed in August as Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council SNSC, Larijani has held senior positions throughout his career, which is marked by loyalty to Khamenei and a reputation for pragmatic relations with the system’s often rival factions.
His status as a trusted strategic adviser to Khamenei was underscored last month with a visit to Oman, a mediating country, to prepare indirect nuclear talks with the United States, at a time when Washington was reinforcing its military forces in the Middle East in an effort to extract concessions from Iran before the strikes.
Larijani had also made several trips to Moscow in recent months and had met with President Vladimir Putin, discussing a wide range of security issues, in another indication of his return to high-level diplomacy.
He considers the “nuclear problem” solvable
Larijani, who had previously served as head of the SNSC 20 years ago, reassumed its leadership after last year’s 12-day air war between Iran and Israel, in which the United States also participated, formally returning to the core of Iran’s security apparatus.
Some of his public statements on the nuclear issue had a pragmatic tone.
“In my view, this issue is solvable,” he said last month on Oman state television, referring to the talks with the United States.
“If the Americans’ concern is that Iran should not move toward acquiring a nuclear weapon, this can be addressed.”
However, after the wave of anti-government anger in January, his role on the Security Council was denounced by Washington.
According to a statement by the U.S. government describing the sanctions against him and other officials as a response to the crackdown, Larijani was at the forefront of efforts to crush the protests that swept Iran in January.
“Larijani was one of the first Iranian leaders to call for violence in response to the legitimate demands of the Iranian people,” a statement by the U.S. Treasury Department said on 15 January, adding that he acted on Khamenei’s orders.
Human rights organizations report that thousands of people were killed in the crackdown on the protests, the most serious internal unrest in Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
“A pearl for a candy”
Like other Iranian officials, Larijani expressed understanding for the protests organized due to economic hardship. However, he condemned armed actions that, he argued, were instigated by Iran’s arch-enemy, Israel.
“Popular protests must be fully separated from these groups that resemble terrorists,” state media reported on 10 January. “The rioters are a quasi-terrorist group,” he was reported to have said on 26 January.
A former member of the Revolutionary Guards, Larijani served as chief negotiator for the nuclear program from 2005 to 2007, defending what Tehran considers its right to enrich uranium.
He once likened European incentives to abandon nuclear fuel production to “exchanging a pearl for a candy.”
At the time, Iranian analysts said he sought to persuade the West through diplomacy and was considered a pragmatist.
The United States and Israel believe that Iran seeks to build a nuclear weapon that could threaten Israel’s existence. Iran states that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.
Larijani served as Speaker of Parliament from 2008 to 2020.
During his tenure, Iran concluded a nuclear agreement with six world powers in 2015, after nearly two years of delicate negotiations. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from that agreement during his first term in 2018.
Contacts with Putin and relations with Beijing
Larijani has warned that Iran’s nuclear program “can never be destroyed.”
“Because once you discover a technology, they cannot take that discovery away from you,” he told PBS Frontline in September 2025.
“It is like being the inventor of a machine and having it stolen from you. You can build it again.”
Larijani has made repeated visits to Moscow and has met with President Vladimir Putin, assisting Khamenei in managing a key ally and global power that acts as a counterweight to Trump’s pressures.
He was also tasked with advancing negotiations with China, which led to a 25-year cooperation agreement in 2021.
He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2005.
He later attempted to participate in the presidential elections of 2021 and 2024, but was disqualified both times by the Guardian Council, which cited issues concerning, among other things, his standard of living and family ties abroad.
Born in Najaf, Iraq in 1958 into a prominent Iranian clerical family, Larijani moved to Iran as a child and earned a doctorate in philosophy. Several of his brothers also held senior positions, including in the Judiciary and the Foreign Ministry.
One of Larijani’s daughters was removed in January from a medical teaching position at Emory University in the United States, following protests by Iranian-American activists outraged by his role in the crackdown on protests that month.
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