Who is Ali Larijani? Iran’s ‘strongman’ security chief who threatened Trump with ‘elimination’
Israel has said it has killed Iranian politician Ali Larijani in overnight strikes which targeted “a hideout apartment” in Tehran.
If confirmed, Larijani will become the most senior Iranian figure to be killed by Israel since the assassination of supreme leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war.
Larijani, who led Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, had been regarded by experts as among those most likely to step into the power vacuum left by the death of Khamenei. Despite Khamenei’s son Mojtaba being named supreme leader in his stead, Larijani remained a pivotal figure and was regarded by many observers as the country’s de facto leader.
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said another senior figure, the Basij paramilitary force commander Gholamreza Soleimani, had also been killed in a separate strike.
“Larijani and the Basij commander were eliminated overnight and joined the head of the annihilation programme, Khamenei, and all the eliminated members of the axis of evil, in the depths of hell,” Mr Katz said in a statement on Tuesday morning.
Iran has not confirmed the Israeli claims, but on Tuesday, Iranian state media published what they said was a handwritten note by Larijani. The note, posted on Larijani’s X (Twitter) account, commemorates members of the Iranian navy killed in US attacks, whose funerals were expected to be held on Tuesday.
Larijani’s aggressive approach had been a key part of the rhetoric in the opening days of the war, following the 28 February strike on Tehran which killed Khamenei.
“We will not negotiate with the United States,” he said in the aftermath of the first US-Israeli strikes, adding that President Trump held “delusional fantasies” about the unfolding war.
Larijani was last seen in public on Friday, attending the Al‑Quds Day rally in Tehran alongside president Masoud Pezeshkian in a show of support for Palestinians living in the Iranian capital.
Born in the city of Najaf in 1958, Larijani began his career in government as deputy minister of labour and social affairs. In 1994, he was appointed head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, where he remained for a decade.
In 2005, Larijani was appointed as Supreme National Security Council secretary, putting him in charge of Iran’s nuclear negotiations. He had recently been overseeing Tehran’s efforts to reach a nuclear deal with the US.
Larijani had not been named among Iran’s new three-man council following the assassination of Khamenei. Nonetheless power in Iran is believed to remain concentrated within the Security Council, which had reportedly already sidelined Khamenei since the disastrous 12-day war with Israel last June.
Larijani’s power had also eclipsed that of the official president, Pezeshkian, as he had not only taken the lead in the international arena in recent months, but also domestically. He was among the earliest and loudest voices in Iran’s leadership calling for deadly violence to crush political demonstrations that erupted at the end of last year as Iran’s economic crisis deepened.
The unrest, the largest uprising since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, was met with a brutal crackdown. As many as 30,000 people are believed to have been killed by the regime this year, according to Iran International.
