Iran’s Supreme National Security Council announced Tuesday evening that its secretary, Ali Larijani, had been killed, after Israel said it struck him in an air attack. The council’s confirmation made Larijani the highest-ranking Iranian official reported killed since the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was struck down in an Israeli attack on February 28.
A longtime central figure in Tehran’s political and security establishment, Larijani had emerged publicly in the days after the US and Israel opened their campaign against Iran, condemning the strikes on state television and social media and vowing retaliation. “We will burn their hearts. We will make the Zionist criminals and the shameless Americans regret their actions,” he said.
Despite such rhetoric, Larijani was widely seen abroad as a pragmatist who combined hard-edged political maneuvering with negotiated diplomacy. Over decades he was both an influential internal powerbroker and a capable interlocutor with Russia, China and, at times, the United States.
Born in 1958 into a prominent clerical and political family often labeled the “Kennedys of Iran,” Larijani’s relatives included senior judicial and foreign-policy figures. His father was a grand ayatollah; brothers Sadeq (Ardeshir) Larijani and Mohammad-Javad Larijani held high judicial and foreign-policy posts, respectively. His father-in-law, Morteza Motahhari, was a close aide to Iran’s revolutionary leader, Ruhollah Khomeini. Although not a cleric, Larijani leveraged these ties while building his own career.
He joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 1981 and served as a commander during the Iran–Iraq war. Academically eclectic, he studied in a seminary, earned a degree in computer science and mathematics, and completed a master’s and PhD in Western philosophy at the University of Tehran, with a 1995 doctoral focus on Immanuel Kant.
Larijani entered government at a young age, serving as culture minister in his mid-30s. In 1994 Ayatollah Khamenei appointed him head of Iran’s state broadcaster, a post he held for about a decade; under his leadership the broadcaster was often used to advance government narratives and to criticize dissident intellectuals. He ran for president in 2005 but captured less than 6% of the vote, a contest won by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
He later became secretary-general of the Supreme National Security Council and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, stepping down in 2007 amid tensions with Ahmadinejad. In 2008 Larijani won the speakership of parliament, a role he retained for 12 years. As parliament speaker he played a key role in securing domestic support for the 2015 nuclear agreement (the JCPOA) with world powers, a deal later abandoned by the United States in 2018.
Larijani was implicated in overseeing a strategic 25-year cooperation pact with China that was negotiated from 2020 and finalized in 2021, a deal Tehran described as promising major Chinese investment in Iran’s energy and infrastructure sectors.
His relationship with hardliners was often tense. In 2021 the Guardian Council barred him from running for president without publicly giving reasons; analysts pointed to a mix of political calculations and concerns over family ties abroad, including reports of a daughter living in the United States with a British passport. Larijani publicly criticized the disqualification and remained at odds with hardline figures, including former president Ebrahim Raisi.
After Raisi’s death in a 2024 helicopter crash, Larijani again sought the presidency but was blocked. The 2024 election was won by Masoud Pezeshkian, who in August 2025 reappointed Larijani as head of the Supreme National Security Council following a 12-day war with Israel. In that role Larijani often appeared to wield influence that at times eclipsed the president’s, pressing for renewed nuclear talks with the United States and traveling as a de facto envoy to Vladimir Putin, accompanied by close aides such as ambassador Kazem Jalali.
Shortly before the most recent US and Israeli strikes, Larijani told Al Jazeera that Iran had used recent months to shore up its defenses. “We found our weaknesses and fixed them,” he said. “We are not looking for war, and we won’t start the war. But if they force it on us, we will respond.”
This article was originally published on March 3, 2026, and updated on March 17, 2026, with news of Ali Larijani’s death.