Ali Larijani

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ali Ardashir Larijani (Persian: علی اردشیر لاریجانی; born 1958) is an Iranian philosopher, politician and the chairman of the Iranian parliament.^[1] Larijani was the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from August 15, 2005 to October 20, 2007, appointed to the position by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,^[2] replacing Hassan Rowhani. 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.^[3]

Larijani is one of the two representatives of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei 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.

Iran

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Iran

Constitution Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad First Vice President Parviz Davoodi Assembly of Experts Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Majlis of Iran (Parliament) Ali Larijani Guardian Council Ahmad Jannati Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Judicial system of Iran Mahmoud Shahroudi Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili City and Village Councils Military of Iran Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar Ministry of Intelligence and Security Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei Ministry of Petroleum of Iran Gholam Hossein Nozari National Iranian Oil Company Agriculture of Iran Mohammad Reza Eskandari Central Bank of Iran Tahmasb Mazaheri Elections Recent: Experts (2006), Local (2006) Legislative (2008) Provinces (ostānhā) Counties (shahrestānhā) Political parties Foreign relations

Other countries · Atlas  Politics Portal view • talk • edit

Contents 1 Personal life 2 Education 3 Presidential candidacy 4 Nuclear advisor 5 Iranian nuclear crisis 6 2008 parliamentary election 7 References 8 See also 9 External links 9.1 Video clips

[edit] Personal life

Ali Larijani is a son of Ayatollah Hashem Amoli, a brother of Sadegh Larijani (a cleric member of the Guardian Council), Mohammad Javad Larijani, Bagher Larijani (chancellor of Tehran University of Medical Sciences), and Fazel Larijani (Iran's cultural attachée in Ottawa). He is also the son-in-law of Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari, having married his daughter Farideh, and also a cousin of Ahmad Tavakkoli (Larijani's and Tavaokkli's mothers are sisters).

[edit] Education

Dr. Larijani holds a Ph.D. and Masters degree in western philosophy from Tehran University and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Sharif University of Technology. Initially he wanted to continue his graduate studies in Computer Science, but changed his subject after consultation with Morteza Motahhari.

Larijani has published books on Immanuel Kant.

[edit] Presidential candidacy

Larijani was a presidential candidate for the 2005 presidential elections, where he ranked sixth, winning 5.94% of the votes. He was also the previous president of the IRIB, installed by the Supreme Leader, and was followed by Ezzatollah Zarghami after serving ten years in the post from 1994 to 2004.

Before his presidency at the IRIB, Larijani served as the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance under President Rafsanjani after Mohammad Khatami's resignation from the post.

Larijani, 50, was head of Iran's state broadcasting monopoly for 10 years before stepping down in 2004, to become a security adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's ultimate authority.

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.

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 (Persian: شورای هماهنگی نیروهای انقلاب), 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).

[edit] Nuclear advisor

In 2005, Larijani was appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, a body which helps draw up nuclear and other policies. Khamenei has the final word in all such matters.^{[citation needed]}

He took a tough line on the nuclear file before his appointment as negotiator.^{[citation needed]} 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.”^{[citation needed]}

As chief nuclear negotiator, Iranian analysts said he differed with the president^{[citation needed]} over how to pursue negotiations with his European counterparts and say he backed a more pragmatic approach.

[edit] 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 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.^[4]

[edit] 2008 parliamentary election

In the March 2008 parliamentary election, Larijani won a seat from Qom. 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 parliament.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Hassan Rowhani
• Supreme National Security Council

[edit] External links

• Iranian Nuclear Crisis Timeline
• 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

[edit] Video clips

• Suspension of Uranium Enrichment Is Like Denying Iran Nuclear Technology Feb. 2005

Preceded by Hassan Rowhani

Secretary of Supreme National Security Council 2005-2007

Succeeded by Saeed Jalili

v • d • e Chairmen of the Majlis of Iran since 1980 Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1980–1989) · Mehdi Karroubi (1989-1992) · Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri (1992-2000) · Mehdi Karroubi (2000-2004) · Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel (2004-2008) · Ali Larijani (since 2008)