Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz had earlier stated that Larijani was killed in an Israeli strike.
Larijani was widely considered a key insider in Iran’s political system and a trusted adviser to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Over several decades, he played a central role in shaping Iran’s national security strategy and nuclear policy.Who was Ali Larijani?
Born in 1958 in Najaf, Iraq, Larijani came from a prominent clerical family that had taken refuge there during the rule of Iran’s former monarch. He later moved to Iran, where he pursued higher education and eventually earned a doctorate in philosophy.
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His political career began after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Larijani joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and rose to become a staff officer responsible for organisational operations behind the front lines, as per Reuters.
After the war, he steadily moved into senior government roles. He served as Iran’s culture minister and later headed the country’s state broadcaster, IRIB.
Larijani later became secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s highest security decision-making body.
Larijani played a key role in nuclear negotiations
Larijani gained international prominence as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator between 2005 and 2007. In that role, he defended Tehran’s right to enrich uranium despite mounting international pressure.
Referring to European proposals that Iran abandon its nuclear fuel programme, Larijani once remarked that accepting such incentives would be like exchanging “a pearl for a candy bar”, as per Reuters.
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In a 2025 interview with PBS’s Frontline programme, he said Iran’s nuclear capabilities could not be erased. “Because once you have discovered a technology, they can’t take the discovery away,” he said. “It’s as if you are the inventor of some machine, and the machine is stolen from you. You can still make it again.”
Larijani’s influence and role in suppressing protests
Larijani served as Iran’s parliament speaker from 2008 to 2020 and later became a political adviser to Khamenei as well as a member of the Expediency Council, as per Reuters.
Despite being seen by some analysts as a pragmatic conservative, he was also criticised for his alleged role in suppressing mass protests earlier this year.
“Larijani was one of the first Iranian leaders to call for violence in response to the legitimate demands of the Iranian people,” according to a US Treasury statement cited by Reuters.
Rights groups say thousands were killed during the crackdown, marking one of the most severe episodes of domestic unrest in Iran since the Islamic Revolution.
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