Ali Larijani, Who Shaped Iran's Nuclear Negotiations With US
Ali Larijani has remained a calm and pragmatic face of the Iranian political establishment, who negotiated nuclear deals with the West and wrote a book on the 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. The 67-year-old is serving as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The US-Israel attack on Iran has turned him into one of the most active political faces, who directly challenged America and the Zionist regime to set their hearts ablaze. He said to make the American and Zionist criminals regret their actions of killing the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and IRGC top officials.
“The brave soldiers and the great nation of Iran will deliver an unforgettable lesson to the hellish international oppressors”, Larijani said on state television.
The Kennedys of Iran
Larijanti was born on June 3, 1958, in Najaf, Iraq, to a wealthy family from Amol and belongs to a dynasty so influential that Time magazine described them, in 2009, as the “Kennedys of Iran”.
His father, Mirza Hashem Amoli, was a prominent religious scholar. And like Larijani, his brothers have held some of the most powerful positions in Iran, including in the judiciary and the Assembly of Experts, a clerical council empowered with choosing and overseeing the supreme leader.
Larijani’s ties to Iran’s post-1979 revolutionary elite are also personal. At age 20, he married Farideh Motahari, the daughter of Morteza Motahhari, a close confidant of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini.
Unlike many of his peers who came solely from religious seminaries, Larijani also has a secular academic background.
In 1979, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Sharif University of Technology. He later completed master’s and doctorate degrees in Western philosophy from the University of Tehran, writing his thesis on Kant.
Role In Iran’s Nuclear Doctrine
After the 1979 revolution, he joined the IRGC in the early 1980s, before transitioning to government, serving as culture minister under President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani between 1994 and 1997.
Larijani entered parliament in 2008, winning a seat to represent the religious centre of Qom, and became the speaker. This allowed Larijani to grow in influence, and he maintained his connection to the nuclear file, securing parliamentary approval for the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
In October 2025, reports emerged that Larijani had cancelled a cooperation agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), declaring that the agency’s reports were “no longer effective”.
Despite that tough stance, Larijani is often regarded as pragmatic and someone inside the Iranian system who may be willing to compromise, in part due to his past role in backing the 2015 nuclear deal.
Just weeks before the current escalation, Larijani was reportedly engaged in indirect negotiations with the US.
In February, during talks mediated by Oman, he stated that Tehran had not received a specific proposal from Washington, and accused Israel of trying to sabotage the diplomatic track to “ignite a war”.
However, the air strikes, which began on February 28, have shattered the diplomatic window.
In his latest address, Larijani assured the nation that plans were in place to arrange the leadership succession according to the Constitution. He warned the US that it was delusional to think killing leaders would destabilise Iran.
