Tehran - With his imminent election as speaker of the
Iranian parliament Ali Larijani will not only become the head of the
legislature but also the main challenger to President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
Larijani was born in 1958 in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf
where his cleric father worked as a lawyer. In Tehran he graduated in
computer sciences and mathematics before obtaining a doctorate in
philosophy.
Larijani's main political career started in the mid 1980s as
culture minister under president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani. In 1994,
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made him head of the state
television network IRIB. A decade later, Khamenei appointed him as
his advisor in the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).
An opponent of the reform movement led by president Mohammad
Khatami, Larijani ran in the 2005 presidential elections but failed
to make it into the second round. Nevertheless, election winner
Ahmadinejad appointed him secretary of the SNSC and chief nuclear
negotiator.
Despite taking a tough stance in negotiations with European Union
foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Larijani sought to avoid an
escalation of the nuclear row with the West.
In October 2005, he resigned because of differences with
Ahmadinejad over the handling of the nuclear issue, which had in the
meantime led to three UN Security Council resolutions against Iran
and pushed the Islamic state towards international isolation.
After his resignation, Larijani became a critic of the president.
Following his landslide win in the March parliamentary elections, he
became leader of a new conservative faction whose members used to
support Ahmadinejad but who had gradually distanced themselves from
him.
Larijani was eventually elected in an internal meeting as
parliament speaker for the new legislative period. Following the
failure of the pro-Khatami reformist wing, he has also emerged as an
alternative to the president.
Although ideologically on the same wavelength as Ahmadinejad -
loyal to Islam and the country's clergy system - he is considered a
symbol of the new and more moderate political wave with whom the West
could at least engage in a dialogue.
Larijani is also expected by analysts to be the main challenger of
Ahmadinejad in the next presidential elections scheduled for June
2009.
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