The end of Ali Larijani, the powerful Iranian wartime leader who threatened to kill Trump

Alí Larijani had become the face and voice of the ayatollahs' regime after the death of Ali Khamenei in the early stages of the Middle East conflict. Shrewd, pragmatic and ruthless, the head of the Iranian Security Council was the heart and brains of Tehran at this time, in counterpoint to the disappeared new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen since the fighting began.

His increased power gave him wings to threaten the United States and Israel, daring even to warn Donald Trump to "beware" of being assassinated. However, Israel claims to have managed to take him down after an attack on Monday night into Tuesday.

The security chief was seen walking through the crowd at a pro-government rally last week in Tehran in a show of defiance to Israel and the United States. His removal is a hard blow to Iran, as it would mean the loss of a key figure considered capable of handling himself both ideologically and diplomatically.

A key figure in ideology and diplomacy

Skilled at balancing ideological loyalty with pragmatism, Larijani played a pivotal role before the war in both nuclear policy and diplomacy. Bespectacled and known for his measured tone, the 68-year-old was said to enjoy the confidence of the late Khamenei after a long career in the military, the media and the legislature. In fact, he was one of the key figures tasked by the late supreme leader with holding the reins of the country should he fall. 

In 2025, after Iran's last war against Israel and the United States, he was appointed head of Iran's top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, a position he had held nearly two decades earlier, coordinating defense strategies and overseeing nuclear policy.

He later rose to profile in the diplomatic arena, traveling to Gulf countries such as Oman and Qatar as Tehran cautiously participated in nuclear negotiations that were ultimately scuttled by war.

"A shrewd operator"

"Larijani is a real connoisseur of the system, a shrewd operator who knows exactly how it works," Alí Vaez, project manager for Iran at the International Crisis Group, told AFP before the Middle East war began.

Born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1957, the son of a prominent Shiite cleric close to the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, Larijani's family has been influential within the Iranian political system for decades. He earned a doctorate in Western philosophy from Tehran University.

A veteran of the Guards of the Revolution corps during the Iran-Iraq war, Larijani subsequently headed the state-run IRIB Broadcasting for a decade from 1994, before serving as Parliament speaker between 2008 and 2020.

In 1996, he was appointed Khamenei's representative on the Supreme National Security Council. He later became secretary of this council and chief nuclear negotiator, leading talks with the UK, France, Germany and Russia between 2005 and 2007.

Defeat in 2005 presidential election to Ahmadinejad

He ran in the 2005 presidential election but lost to populist candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with whom he later had disagreements over nuclear diplomacy. As a result, Larijani was then barred from running in presidential elections in both 2021 and 2024.

Observers saw his return to head the Supreme National Security Council as marking a turn that reflected his reputation as a conservative, capable of combining ideological commitment with pragmatism.

Key to Iran's nuclear project

Larijani supported the historic 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which fell apart three years later when U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from it. In March 2025, Larijani warned that external pressure could alter Iran's nuclear posture.

"We are not moving toward (nuclear) weapons, but if they do something wrong on the Iranian nuclear issue, they will force Iran to move in that direction, because it has to defend itself," he told state television.

Larijani repeatedly insisted that negotiations with Washington should be limited to the nuclear file and defended uranium enrichment as Iran's sovereign right.

Most responsible for the bloody crackdown on protests

Larijani was one of the officials sanctioned by the United States in January for having, according to Washington,"violently repressed the Iranian people" following protests that erupted across the country weeks earlier against the rising cost of living and which left up to 30,000 dead, according to human rights organizations.

Larijani acknowledged that economic pressures had "provoked the protests," but blamed the violence on foreign interference by the United States and Israel.