Akhtar Makoii
London: Iran has a president who admits he is “a doctor, not a politician” and should not be expected to cure the country’s problems.
It has a foreign minister who must ask permission before speaking to American envoys in nuclear talks.
And it has an 86-year-old supreme leader who threatens to send US warships to the “bottom of the sea”.
Then it has Ali Larijani.
The 67-year-old security chief is the man Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei trusts more than anyone else in the Islamic republic, according to Iranian officials, and he is now effectively running Iran as it teeters between deal and destruction.
He has also been charged with ensuring the regime’s survival in succession plans as Iran prepares for assassination attempts on its leadership, including Khamenei.
Donald Trump reportedly told advisers that he would consider a large attack to drive the clerics from power if diplomacy or any initial strikes failed.
Talks are ongoing while the US president continues to mass military assets in the region and Iran tries to predict his next move. The third round is scheduled in Geneva on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to avoid war.
While Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is the face of the negotiations, Larijani, who comes from one of the most powerful families in Iran, is the backroom operator tasked by Khamenei to save the Islamic republic.
“He is one of the very few people who can still meet the leader and has been given the job of rescuing the system,” a senior Iranian official told London’s Telegraph.
“He has become the only person who can pressure the leader to talk and tell him that the system would face a big survival challenge if we don’t talk with Trump.”
In recent weeks, Larijani’s visibility has soared as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s has diminished.
He has flown to Moscow, met Middle Eastern leaders, sat for hours-long television interviews with Iranian and foreign outlets, and actively posts on social media.
“He is officially running everything here and the talks – Pezeshkian and Araghchi – are just there for the blame,” the official said. “His task these days is make sure Trump does not attack.”
In previous years, Larijani enjoyed less fortune.
He tried to run for president in 2021 but was barred by the vetting council without reason. He ran again three years later and was again disqualified.
He also negotiated a 25-year strategic deal with China worth billions that prompted a wave of criticism from all sides in Iran.
But now, his most important external role is as Khamenei’s personal envoy to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The supreme leader regularly sends him to Moscow – his latest trip was on January 30 – to co-ordinate strategy and exchange messages, demonstrating a level of trust he extends to almost no one else.
Khamenei’s trust in Larijani comes from decades of loyal service across multiple sensitive positions: culture minister in the early 1990s, broadcasting chief for a decade, supreme national security council secretary, and parliamentary speaker for 12 years until 2020.
Yet insiders say something crucial is often overlooked about him.
“He is just a clever politics businessman,” a second Iranian official said, “who tries to keep his family in power whatever happens next.”
For years, he and his brothers dominated multiple branches of government. Ali as parliamentary speaker, Sadegh as judiciary chief, and Javad heading the judiciary’s human rights council.
That family grip on power has weakened recently.
Sadegh was pushed out of the judiciary before his term ended. Javad was removed from his human rights position after 14 years.
Another brother, Fazel, faces corruption allegations from former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
But Ali remains, and a senior official believes his endgame extends beyond survival to succession – specifically, positioning his brother Sadegh, a senior cleric, as a potential successor to Khamenei.
He is “a mysterious man who tries to make his brother the supreme leader”, with personal ambition always cloaked behind quiet manoeuvring rather than public prominence, according to the Iranian officials.
Those who have studied him closely describe a deeply enigmatic figure – a man who operates largely in the shadows.
He can appear either moderate or hardline, adopting whichever stance best serves the moment.
Married into revolutionary aristocracy
He studied philosophy at Tehran University under Ahmad Fardid, known as the “oral philosopher” who championed the fight against “Westoxification”, and has published books on Immanuel Kant.
Larijani also married into revolutionary aristocracy – his father-in-law was Morteza Motahhari, a prominent cleric who helped shape the Islamic republic’s ideology.
This ideological grounding made him valuable to Khamenei in the early 1990s as the new supreme leader sought to consolidate control over Iran’s cultural and media apparatus.
As head of state broadcasting from 1994 to 2004, Larijani oversaw one of the most controversial programs in Iranian television history – Hoviat (Identity), which aired in 1996.
The Friday night show systematically destroyed the reputations of Iran’s most respected writers and intellectuals, branding them Western agents and traitors.
The program coincided with the “chain murders” of intellectuals by rogue intelligence agents, creating a climate of fear that silenced an entire generation of Iranian writers and critics.
During the 12-day war last June, he also urged Khamenei to begin direct talks with Washington.
Now, as the Islamic republic faces its gravest crisis – economic collapse, continued protests, international isolation and potential war – he has positioned himself as indispensable.
He is the only person who can manage negotiations with America, co-ordinate with Russia, suppress domestic unrest, and potentially hold the system together if Khamenei dies.
The mysterious Larijani has spent 30 years building that trust. Whether this proves enough to save the Islamic republic – or his family’s place in whatever replaces it – may be decided in the coming days.
The Telegraph, London
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