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Ali Larijani, head of the Iranian security apparatus, spent years in the shadow of Iranian power before establishing himself as one of its most prominent figures since the war against Israel and the United States broke out.
The Iranian Supreme National Security Council confirmed on Tuesday the death of its head, who last Friday exposed himself publicly in the middle of the street during a demonstration in Tehran.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had announced earlier on Tuesday that Larijani, 68, had died.
Since the start of the war, Larijani had played a much more visible role than the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he was appointed to replace his father.
The security chief was seen walking through the crowd at a pro-government rally last week in Tehran, in a show of defiance toward Israel and the United States.
His death is a hard blow for Iran, as it represents the loss of a key figure considered capable of handling both the ideological and diplomatic fields.
– Pragmatic –
Skilled at balancing ideological loyalty with pragmatism, Larijani played a key role before the war in both nuclear policy and diplomacy.
Bespectacled and known for his measured tone, he is believed to have enjoyed the confidence of the late Khamenei, after a long career in the military, media and legislature.
In 2025, after Iran’s last war against Israel and the United States, he was named head of Iran’s highest security body, the Supreme National Security Council—a position he had already held almost two decades earlier—coordinating defense strategies and overseeing nuclear policy.
He later gained prominence in the diplomatic arena, traveling to Gulf countries such as Oman and Qatar while Tehran cautiously participated in nuclear negotiations that were ultimately frustrated by war.
– “Cunning” –
“Larijani is a true expert on the system, an astute operator who knows exactly how it works,” explained Alí Vaez, Iran project director for the International Crisis Group, before the war in the Middle East began.
Born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1957, the son of a prominent Shiite cleric close to the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, Larijani’s family has been influential within the Iranian political system for decades.
Some of his relatives were the subject of corruption accusations over the years, which they denied.
He earned a doctorate in Western Philosophy from the University of Tehran.
A veteran of the Revolutionary Guards Corps during the Iran-Iraq war, Larijani later headed state broadcaster IRIB for a decade from 1994, before serving as speaker of parliament from 2008 to 2020.
In 1996, he was appointed Khamenei’s representative in the Supreme National Security Council. He later became secretary of this council and chief nuclear negotiator, leading talks with the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Russia between 2005 and 2007.
He ran for president in 2005 but lost to populist candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with whom he later had disagreements over nuclear diplomacy.
Larijani was then prevented from running in the presidential elections, both in 2021 and 2024.
Observers considered his return to head the Supreme National Security Council to mark a turn that reflected his reputation as a conservative, capable of combining ideological commitment with pragmatism.
Larijani supported the historic 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which collapsed three years later when US President Donald Trump withdrew from it.
In March 2025, Larijani warned that external pressure could alter Iran’s nuclear posture.
“We are not moving towards (nuclear) weapons, but if they do something wrong on the Iranian nuclear issue, they will force Iran to move in that direction, because it has to defend itself,” he told state television.
Larijani repeatedly insisted that negotiations with Washington should be limited to the nuclear file and defended uranium enrichment as Iran’s sovereign right.
– Violent repression –
Larijani was one of the officials sanctioned by the United States in January for having, according to Washington, “violently repressed the Iranian people,” following the protests that broke out in the country weeks before against the increase in the cost of living.
According to human rights groups, thousands of people died in the brutal repression of the demonstrations.
Larijani acknowledged that economic pressures had “sparked the protests,” but blamed the violence on foreign interference from the United States and Israel.
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