The United States on Friday called the reappointment of veteran powerbroker Ali Larijani to lead Iran's Supreme National Security Council a step back to failed strategies, saying the Iranian people deserve forward-looking leadership.
"The appointment of Ali Larijani as Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council by the Iranian regime reflects its continued reliance on the same old figures and outdated strategies," the State Department said in a post on its Persian X account.
Earlier this week, Larijani was reappointed to a role from which he resigned two decades ago after clashes with ultra-hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"Larijani’s return to a role he held nearly two decades ago signals the leadership’s preference for failed solutions over forward-looking approaches," the State Department said.
"The people of Iran deserve a model of governance that embraces accountability, progress, and innovative ideas."
For much of his career, Larijani was known as a staunch conservative.
He vocally opposed reformist President Mohammad Khatami and the broader reform movement, using his position as head of the state broadcaster IRIB to discredit Iranian intellectuals.
Yet by 2015, Larijani emerged as a key supporter of the Iran nuclear deal, helping secure its approval in parliament in under 20 minutes despite conservative opposition. The move aligned him with then-president Hassan Rouhani and marked a dramatic pivot from his earlier hardline stance.
Khamenei publicly praised Larijani at the time as a "problem-solver," though his growing closeness to Rouhani reportedly raised eyebrows in the Supreme Leader’s inner circle.
Despite being sidelined in recent presidential elections—disqualified by the Guardian Council in both 2021 and 2024 allegedly over his daughter studying abroad—Larijani has evidently regained the trust of Iran's theocrat.
Following President Ebrahim Raisi’s death last year, he was handed two sensitive tasks: overseeing the Iran-China strategic accord and acting as an intermediary with Russia after Israeli strikes on Iranian soil.
While many establishment figures kept a low profile during the crisis, Larijani reemerged as a visible supporter of the Islamic Republic and its top leadership.
