March 17 (Reuters) – Ali Larijani, a senior adviser to Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been killed at the age of 67 by a U.S.-Israeli air attack in Tehran, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said on Tuesday.
Following are some facts about Larijani:
* Larijani was born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1958 and came from an influential family. He was the brother of Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, who chairs the Expediency Council, a body that mediates in disputes between Iran’s parliament and the Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and jurists that oversees elections and legislation.
* Ali Larijani was head of Iran’s state broadcasting monopoly for 10 years before stepping down in 2004 to become a security adviser to Khamenei, the country’s top authority.
* A former member of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, Larijani ran in the 2005 presidential race. He came well behind several other candidates, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who went on to win.
* In 2005, Larijani was appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s top security body.
* He took a tough line on the nuclear file when appointed in 2005 as top nuclear 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”.
* Larijani quit as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator in October 2007 under Ahmadinejad.
* A moderate conservative insider of the clerical establishment, Larijani served as parliament speaker from 2008 to 2020.
* Iran’s hardline election watchdog body rejected Larijani’s bid to run in Iran’s 2021 and 2024 presidential elections.
* In 2020, Khamenei appointed Larijani as his political adviser and as a member of the Expediency Council.
(Reporting by Michael Georgy, Editing by William Maclean)
