International Writing.- The Iranian government confirmed the death of Ali Lariyani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and a key figure in the country, early this Wednesday after Israel announced it had killed him in a bombing last night in Tehran.
Through a message with the photograph of the person considered the right-hand man of the assassinated supreme leader of Iran, Ali Jamenei, Lariyani’s X account announced his death “as a martyr,” which was later reaffirmed by the government’s information office.
Previously, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz had already stated that Lariyani had been “eliminated”.
The death of Lariyani adds to that of Jamenei and other Iranian leaders following the bombings unleashed by the offensive that the United States and Israel launched against Tehran on February 28th and that have plunged the region into an increasingly tense conflict.
Considered one of the most influential figures in the Iranian system, Lariyani is described by Arab media as the “most important man only behind key figures such as Mojtaba Jamenei.”
The last time he appeared in public was last Friday, when he participated with other officials and thousands of people in a march in the Iranian capital to defy threats to Iran and express their rejection of the war against their country.
The day before the bombings, on Monday, he disseminated a message in which he criticized several governments of Muslim countries for not supporting Tehran – a position he described as contrary to Islam – and assured that the United States and Israel are in a “strategic bind”.
Lariyani, former speaker of Parliament for over a decade and former commander of the Revolutionary Guard, currently held the secretaryship of the Supreme National Security Council.
A System Veteran
Born on June 3, 1958 in Najaf (Iraq), into a wealthy family originally from the Larijan region, in the Iranian city of Amol, he held a master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Tehran and a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science.
In February 2026, before the American and Israeli offensive, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointed him as one of those responsible for managing the country in the event of his death.
In the 1990s, during the presidency of Hashemi Rafsanjani, he was Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, a position he held during the term of Mohamed Khatami. In 1994, Khamenei appointed him director of state radio and television, a position he held for a decade, and in 2004 he became his representative on the Supreme National Security Council.
In 2005, he assumed the secretariat of that body, in charge, among other functions, of nuclear negotiations with the European Union. Subsequently, he was elected president of the Parliament in 2008, a position he held until 2020.
In 2021, he tried to run as an independent candidate in the presidential elections, although his candidacy was ultimately vetoed by the Guardian Council.
In February 2026, he was also in charge of maintaining contacts with the Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, mediator between Iran and Washington, with the aim of reaching a “balanced and fair” nuclear agreement.
Lariyani is also among the Iranian officials sanctioned by the United States in January 2026 for his role in the repression of mass protests in the country.
