Ali Larijani, a senior conservative and secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was killed in an Israeli strike, Iranian officials said. He was 67.
Iranian institutions and outside observers had long regarded Larijani as a central power broker. After the reported killing of Iran’s supreme leader in strikes last month, many saw Larijani as effectively running the country amid a widening conflict. Israel said it carried out the strike early Tuesday; Iran confirmed his death several hours later. The council said Larijani’s son, Morteza Larijani, was also killed.
A close adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on strategic matters, Larijani played a role in negotiations and state strategy, including during nuclear talks with the Trump administration. He traveled to Oman to meet mediators about two weeks before the war began.
Larijani had long been subject to heavy U.S. sanctions and was implicated in the violent suppression of mass protests in January.
Because he was not a Shiite cleric, Larijani was ineligible to become supreme leader. Still, many expected him to remain a top adviser, and some analysts believed he was effectively leading Iran as other senior figures were driven underground by U.S. and Israeli operations.
Born into one of Iran’s most prominent political families—often compared in media to the U.S. Kennedys—Larijani’s brothers held powerful posts: Sadeq Larijani led the judiciary, and Mohammad Javad Larijani was a senior diplomat and an adviser to the late Khamenei.
Over decades Larijani shifted toward harder-line positions. In the 1990s he served as culture minister and enforced tighter censorship. He was speaker of parliament from 2008 to 2020 and most recently headed the Supreme National Security Council.
Alongside his political career, Larijani pursued intellectual work, authoring at least six philosophy books, including three on Immanuel Kant. In public exchanges during the crisis he responded sharply to threats from U.S. leaders; after a U.S. president warned of severe retaliation if Iran disrupted oil flows, Larijani posted on X that the Iranian nation did not fear empty threats and warned opponents to be careful not to risk elimination.
