Ali Bagheri Kani, a 57-year-old political figure with a background in Iran’s diplomatic and security services, has been appointed interim foreign minister following the death of his successor, Hossein Amirabdollahian.
Amirabdollahian died on Sunday, along with President Ebrahim Raisi and several other officials and staff, in a helicopter crash in Iran’s mountainous East Azerbaijan province.
Bagheri Kani was the logical choice to serve as acting foreign minister, having previously served as Amirabdollahian’s deputy for political affairs.
The new foreign minister was born in a village just north of the capital, Tehran, into a conservative family that helped establish and strengthen Iran.
Families have played an important role in this country. His father, Mohammad Bagher Bagheri Kani, a prominent cleric who is now 98 years old, is a member of parliament and a former member of the Council of Experts, tasked with appointing a successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who is 85 years old. It is a clerical organization that has suffered. .
and his uncle, Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Qani, a former acting prime minister and interior minister who headed the Council of Experts from 2010 until his death in 2014. Mesbah al-Khoda Bagheri Qani, the younger brother of the new acting foreign minister, is his son. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s duty.
Bagheri Qani studied economics at Imam Sadiq University in Tehran. The university has produced many Iranian government officials and was once run by his father.
Jalili’s close ally
He began his diplomatic career at the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s Regional Desk and also worked briefly as a political analyst on state television.
He is a longtime close ally of Saeed Jalili, a key ultra-conservative figure in the Iranian regime who currently holds a senior position in Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).
Like Jalili, Bagheri Qaani’s name is primarily associated with years of talks over Iran’s nuclear program, and tensions surrounding the country escalated shortly after Jalili was appointed SNSC secretary in 2007. I served as his representative for a period of time. nuclear issue.
At the time, the SNSC was in charge of handling nuclear files, and Bagheri Kani was also a senior member of the country’s negotiating team, meeting with U.S. and European officials.
Those negotiations ultimately broke down, leaving Iran subject to a series of harsh international sanctions.
Mr. Jalili ultimately ran for president in 2013, hoping to express his pessimistic views on the nuclear deal with the West. Bagheri Kani led an unsuccessful election campaign.
That year, with the victory of centrist President Hassan Rouhani, who promised to lift sanctions and end Iran’s isolation, Mr. Jalili and Mr. Bagheri Kani became relatively sidelined.
Rouhani’s government was able to reach a nuclear deal with Western countries in 2015, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the deal in 2018. It didn’t last long because they withdrew from the United States and forced the nuclear deal. Sanctions against Iran will be further strengthened.
Cooperation with Raisi
Raisi, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2017 in an attempt to prevent President Rouhani from being re-elected, was appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei as attorney general in 2019. This happened at a time when sanctions were hurting the economy and the power of reformers and centrists was weakening.
Raisi welcomed Bagheri Kani to his team and appointed him head of international affairs at the Department of Justice. Bagheri Kani also became chairman of the Judiciary’s Human Rights Council, replacing Mohammad Javad Larijani, who held the position for 14 years.
By the time U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration took office and Raisi was ultimately elected president of Iran in a second attempt in 2021, efforts were underway to reinstate the JCPOA to ease tensions. .
Bagheri Kani was appointed as chief negotiator, replacing Abbas Araghchi, a veteran diplomat who helped negotiate the nuclear deal, just before European-brokered negotiations with the United States were scheduled to begin at the end of 2021.
The JCPOA remains stalled and, although Iran now meets the threshold for being a nuclear power, negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are ongoing, which Bagheri-Khani must address in cooperation with Iran’s nuclear agency.
Tehran, along with Washington, has also kept lines of communication open with Europe, with mediated talks taking place in Oman this month. Further negotiations aimed at de-escalating tensions during Israel’s war on Gaza are expected to take place soon and will be overseen by the caretaker foreign minister.
The late Foreign Minister Amirabdollahian was active in representing Iran’s interests and alliances throughout the region, traveling during the war to meet with government officials in Syria, Lebanon, Qatar and other countries.
Bagheri Kani is expected to carry the torch while supporting allies while highlighting Iran’s call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and opposing Western presence and influence in the region.
