Ali Larijani

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Ali Larijani : biography

3 June 1958 –

Ali Ardashir Larijani ( born 3 June 1958) is an Iranian philosopher, politician and the current chairman of the Parliament of Iran., The Guardian, 28 May 2008] Larijani was the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 15 August 2005 to 20 October 2007, appointed to the position by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, replacing Hassan Rouhani. Acceptance of Larijani’s resignation from the secretary position was announced on 20 October 2007 by Gholamhossein Elham, the Iranian government’s spokesman, mentioning that his previous resignations were turned down by President Ahmadinejad.

Larijani is one of the two representatives of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to the council, the other being Hassan Rouhani. In his post as secretary he effectively functioned as the top negotiator on issues of national security, including Iran’s nuclear program.

Personal life

Larijani is the son-in-law of Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari, having married his daughter Farideh. He has two daughters, Fatemeh (born 1980) and Sarah (born 1983) and two sons, Morteza (born 1984) and Mohammad Reza (born 1989).

Political career

His first political career after return to Iran was CEO of IRIB in foreign affairs. From 1981 to 1989, He was Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs in the Government of Mir-Hossein Mousavi. After election of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as President of Iran, He was appointed Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Technology. After Mohammad Khatami’s resignation as Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, he was appointed as acting minister and was confirmed by Parliament on 1 October 1992. In March 1994, he was appointed as head of Head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), replacing Mohammad Hashemi Rafsanjani in the post. He was in office until 21 July 2004 and was succeeded by Ezzatollah Zarghami after serving ten years in the post. He became a security adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s ultimate authority in August 2004. He is also a former member of the Revolutionary Guards, an ideological force that sees itself as the guardian of the Islamic Republic, he ran in the 2005 presidential race.

Presidential candidacy

Larijani was a presidential candidate for the 2005 presidential elections, where he ranked sixth, winning 5.94% of the votes.

Larijani was considered the most important presidential candidate of the conservative alliance for the 2005 presidential elections. He was supported by the Islamic Society of Engineers (ISE), among other conservative groups. He had been announced as the final choice of the conservative Council for Coordination of the Forces of the Revolution, which was made from representatives of some influential conservative parties and organizations. But he proved to be the least popular of the three conservative candidates, the others being Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (second rank in the first round, winner in the second round) and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (fourth rank in the first round).

Nuclear advisor

In 2005, Larijani was appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, a body which helps draw up nuclear and other policies, by Khamenei. He replaced Hassan Rouhani in the post. Larijani took a tough line on the nuclear file before his appointment as negotiator. He said that if Iran took incentives that were being offered by the European Union at the time in return for Iran giving up its nuclear fuel cycle, it would be like exchanging “a pearl for a candy bar.” As chief nuclear negotiator, Iranian analysts said he differed with the president over how to pursue negotiations with his European counterparts and say he backed a more pragmatic approach.

Iranian nuclear crisis

As Iran’s top nuclear envoy Larijani said on 25 April 2007 that he expected "new ideas" from senior EU official Javier Solana at talks on resolving the deadlock between Tehran’s refusal to freeze its nuclear programme and United Nations Security Council demands that it do so.