Ali Ardashir Larijani is an
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian
philosopherPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, politician and the chairman of the Iranian parliament. Larijani was the
Secretary of the Supreme National Security CouncilSupreme National Security Council is the national security council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the current secretary of which is Saeed Jalili. This institution was founded during the 1989 revision of the constitution...
from August 15, 2005 to October 20, 2007, appointed to the position by President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
replacing
Hassan RowhaniHassan Rowhani is an Iranian politician and cleric, and as of March 2007, a member of the Supreme National Security Council. Rowhani's membership in the council is as one of the two representatives of the Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran...
. Acceptance of Larijani's resignation from the secretary position was announced on October 20, 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 LeaderA supreme leader typically refers to a figure in the highest leadership position of an entity, group, organization, or state, who exercises strong or all-powerful authority over it. In religion, the supreme leader or supreme leaders is God or Gods...
Ali KhameneiAyatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...
to the council, the other being Hassan Rowhani. In his post as secretary he effectively functioned as the top negotiator on issues of national security, including Iran's nuclear program.
Early life
Larijani was born on 1 January 1958 in
NajafNajaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...
,
IraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. His father,
Ayatollah Mirza Hashemi AmoliGrand Ayatollah Haj Mirza Hashem Amoli was a Shia cleric.Amoli was born in 1899 in a village near Larijan. He studied Islamic sciences in Amol , Tehran , and Qom. After achieving Ijtihad, Amoli moved to Najaf and stayed there for about thirty years...
was an ayatollah that works in Najaf after was exiled by Mohammad Reza Shah. They moved to Iran after
Iranian RevolutionThe Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
in 1979.
Education
Dr. Larijani graduated with a B.Sc. in
Computer ScienceComputer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
and
MathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
from
Sharif University of TechnologySharif University of Technology is a university of higher education in technology, engineering and physical sciences in Tehran. Sharif University of Technology is one of the most prestigious universities in the country, and is considered Iran's MIT...
and holds a Masters degree and Ph.D. in
Western philosophyWestern philosophy is the philosophical thought and work of the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies and the varieties of indigenous philosophies....
from Tehran University. Initially he wanted to continue his graduate studies in Computer Science, but changed his subject after consultation with
Morteza MotahhariAyatollah Murtaza Motahhari was an Iranian scholar, cleric, lecturer, and politician.Motahhari is considered among the important influences on the ideologies of the Islamic Republic, and was a co-founder of Hosseiniye Ershad and the Combatant Clergy Association...
.
Larijani has published books on
Immanuel KantImmanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
,
Saul KripkeSaul Aaron Kripke is an American philosopher and logician. He is a professor emeritus at Princeton and teaches as a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center...
, and
David Lewis-Academics:*David Lewis , civil lawyer and first Principal of Jesus College, Oxford*David Lewis , English author and psychologist*David C...
.
Political careers
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 AffairsMinistry of Labour and Social Affairs of Iran , was the main organ of Iranian Government in charge of the regulation and implementation of policies applicable to labour and social affairs.-History:...
in the Government of
Mir-Hossein MousaviMir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh is an Iranian reformist politician, artist and architect who served as the seventy-ninth and last Prime Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He was a Reformist candidate for the 2009 presidential election and eventually the leader of the opposition in the post-election...
. After election of
Akbar Hashemi RafsanjaniAyatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is an influential Iranian politician and writer, who was the fourth President of Iran. He was a member of the Assembly of Experts until his resignation in 2011...
as
President of IranThe President of Iran is the highest popularly elected official in, and the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran; although subordinate to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who functions as the country's head of state...
, He was appointed
Deputy Minister of Information and Communications TechnologyThe Ministry of Information and Communication Technology established in 1908, is the Ministry of Information and Communication of the Islamic Republic of Iran...
. After
Mohammad KhatamiSayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...
's resignation as
Minister of Culture and Islamic GuidanceThe Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance is the ministry of Culture of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is responsible for restricting access to any media of which the Islamic Regime in Tehran does not approve....
, he was appointed as acting minister and was confirmed by Parliament on 1 October 1992. On 21 July 1994, He was appointed as head of Head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and was in office until his term was end on 21 July 2004 and was followed by
Ezzatollah ZarghamiEzzatollah Zarghami has been the head of IRIB, the media corporation in charge of controlling Iranian national radio and television broadcasting, since 2004. His predecessor was Ali Larijani....
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 electionsIran's ninth presidential election took place in two rounds, the first on June 17, 2005, the run-off on June 24. Mohammad Khatami, the previous President of Iran, stepped down on August 2, 2005, after serving his maximum two consecutive four-year terms according to the Islamic Republic's constitution...
, 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 electionsIran's ninth presidential election took place in two rounds, the first on June 17, 2005, the run-off on June 24. Mohammad Khatami, the previous President of Iran, stepped down on August 2, 2005, after serving his maximum two consecutive four-year terms according to the Islamic Republic's constitution...
. He was supported by the
Islamic Society of EngineersThe Islamic Society of Engineers or ISE, is a political organization in Iran, a member of the conservative Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran....
(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 GhalibafMohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf is the current Mayor of Tehran, Iran.-Early life and military career:Ghalibaf was born to a Khorasani Kurdish father and a Persian mother. At the age of nineteen, he was one of the commanders of the defense forces during the Iran–Iraq War...
(fourth rank in the first round).
Nuclear advisor
In 2005, Larijani was appointed secretary of the
Supreme National Security CouncilSupreme National Security Council is the national security council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the current secretary of which is Saeed Jalili. This institution was founded during the 1989 revision of the constitution...
, a body which helps draw up nuclear and other policies. Khamenei has the final word in all such matters.
He 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 he said on April 25, 2007 that he expected "new ideas" from senior EU official
Javier SolanaFrancisco Javier Solana de Madariaga, KOGF is a Spanish physicist and Socialist politician. After serving in the Spanish government under Felipe González and Secretary General of NATO , he was appointed the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Secretary...
at talks on resolving the deadlock between
TehranTehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
's refusal to freeze
its nuclear programmeThe nuclear program of Iran was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program. The support, encouragement and participation of the United States and Western European governments in Iran's nuclear program continued until the 1979 Iranian Revolution...
and
United Nations Security CouncilThe United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
demands that it do so.
Election as Chairman of the Parliament
In the March 2008 parliamentary election, Larijani won a seat from
QomQom is a city in Iran. It lies by road southwest of Tehran and is the capital of Qom Province. At the 2006 census, its population was 957,496, in 241,827 families. It is situated on the banks of the Qom River....
. He said that he was willing to work with Ahmadinejad; according to Larijani, he did not disagree with Ahmadinejad on ideological issues and they had only "differences in style". In May 2008, Larijani became speaker of the
parliamentThe National Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...
. He was reelected in next years.
After 2009 presidential elections
Larijani implied on 21 June 2009 that authorities took the side of one candidate, without clarifying which candidate.
Personal life
Ali Larijani is a son of Ayatollah
Hashem AmoliGrand Ayatollah Haj Mirza Hashem Amoli was a Shia cleric.Amoli was born in 1899 in a village near Larijan. He studied Islamic sciences in Amol , Tehran , and Qom. After achieving Ijtihad, Amoli moved to Najaf and stayed there for about thirty years...
, a brother of Sadegh Larijani (President of the Judicature),
Mohammad Javad LarijaniMohammad Javad Ardashir Larijani is an Iranian politician, cleric and academic. Larijani is the head of the human rights council in the judiciary and a top adviser to the supreme leader. Additionally Larijani has been the Director of Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics in...
,
Bagher LarijaniBagher Larijani is a physician,Doctur, and former Deputy Minister of Health in Iran. He is one of five politically influential brothers, sons of Grand Ayatullah Mirza Hashem Amoli, who have been called the "Kennedys of Iran." The family's politics are considered Pragmatic conservative - strongly...
(chancellor of
Tehran University of Medical Sciences- General and History :Tehran University of Medical Sciences is the largest and "most distinguished", and most highly ranked medical school of Iran. In September 2008, the health minister of Iran - General and History :Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) is the largest and "most...
), and Fazel Larijani (Iran's cultural attachée in
OttawaOttawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
). He is also the son-in-law of Ayatollah
Morteza MotahhariAyatollah Murtaza Motahhari was an Iranian scholar, cleric, lecturer, and politician.Motahhari is considered among the important influences on the ideologies of the Islamic Republic, and was a co-founder of Hosseiniye Ershad and the Combatant Clergy Association...
, having married his daughter Farideh, and also a cousin of
Ahmad TavakkoliAhmad Tavakkoli is a conservative representative of Tehran in the Iranian parliament, and the Director of Majlis Research Center.Before, he had been the Iranian Minister of Labour under Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a parliament representative from Behshahr, and a presidential candidate in two of the...
(Larijani's and Tavakkoli's mothers are sisters). He has two daughters, Fatemeh (born 1980) and Sarah (born 1983) and two sons, Morteza (born 1984) and Mohammad Reza (born 1989).
External links
- Ali Larijani interview Interview with Jon Snow, Channel 4 News, live in Tehran. Mar 6, 2006.
- The new air Larijani's official campaign website (in Persian).
- Larijani's biography on his campaign website (in Persian).
- Frances Harrison, "Iran's Nuclear Negotiator," Interview with BBC News, Nov. 8, 2005.
- Gareth Smyth. "Larijani's Pragmatist Reputation Faces Severe Challenge," Financial Times (London), Jan. 10, 2006.
- Transcript of interview with Roula Khalaf and Gareth Smyth, Financial Times (London), Jan. 22, 2006.
- Suspension of Uranium Enrichment Is Like Denying Iran Nuclear Technology Feb. 2005 transcript
- IRAN: LARIJANI FACTION EMERGES AS THIRD FORCE IN IRANIAN POWER STRUGGLE. Kamal Nazer Yasin 6/25/09
Video clips