Ali Larijani, Iran’s newly appointed security chief, courted controversy on Monday by suggesting Americans could be driven to suicide when hearing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu describe Israel as a bulwark of American civilization.
"When a rootless child-killing criminal like @Netanyahu calls himself 'the frontline of American civilization', you can’t blame Americans if they feel like suicide," Ali Larijani wrote on X.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Netanyahu on Monday and both hailed the unity of their two nations in confronting threats they say Iran poses.
Larijani is a relative moderate and veteran insider who was elevated to lead Iran's Supreme National Security Council following a 12-day war in which Israel and the United States pounded Iranian nuclear and military sites, leaving hundreds dead.
It was unclear what Larijani meant by the assertions. "Rootless cosmopolitan" was a slur deployed in the Soviet Union directed at intellectual figures and particularly Jews, and the descriptor has been consistently deployed by anti-Semitic polemicists.
Critics of Israel have frequently scorned the relatively recent arrival of its leaders or their families from other countries in the twentieth century.
The Israeli premier's father, who was born in Poland as Benzion Mileikowsky, later adopted the Biblical surname Netanyahu and became a preeminent scholar or early modern Spain.
Larijani's assertion on the United States was less direct and could have been a reference to a fraught moment in American politics as political polarization deepens in the wake of the assassination of prominent political commentator Charlie Kirk.
Holding a PhD in philosophy and the rank of brigadier general in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Larijani has long plied a deft course around public debates which have divided Iran's ruling factions.
Larijani also serves as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's personal representative to the key decision-making SNSC, an apparent key endorsement by Tehran's top authority.
His new mandate is widely seen as righting Iran's security tack after lapses allowing Israeli attacks to kill nuclear scientists along with hundreds of military personnel and civilians.
In the sensitive new role, Larijani has stepped up the frequency and edge of his social media criticism of Israel and the United States, especially following the 12-day war in June.
“Enemies of Iran should know that our nuclear industry has deep roots and cannot be eliminated through military action,” Eslami said in his address to the 69th General Conference.
He added that “Iran will not yield to political or military pressure and will not give up its inherent rights.”
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said Tehran’s cooperation with the IAEA “has been broad and consistent,” but accused the agency of failing to condemn what he called aggressive acts against Iranian nuclear sites.
“Despite our formal request, the agency did not condemn the attacks by the United States and Israel on the nuclear centers of the Islamic Republic,” he said. “This silence and inaction will remain as a stain on the Agency’s history.”
Eslami also criticized European efforts to trigger the “snapback” mechanism to restore UN sanctions on Iran, calling them illegal.
He said the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), had shown diplomacy could succeed, but argued that Western states had undermined it.
“Today, on the anniversary of the JCPOA, we see unlawful attempts to activate the snapback mechanism,” he said. “These efforts are a mockery of Resolution 2231.”
Eslami also said Israel’s attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities had targeted not only infrastructure but also diplomacy itself. “The Zionist regime’s goal is not merely to destroy our nuclear centers but to derail the path of diplomacy and peace,” he said.
Eslami also Iran would table a resolution at the conference to ban attacks on nuclear facilities and would hold meetings with states cooperating with Tehran.
The comments come as Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has laid out conditions for future IAEA inspections under a new arrangement signed in Cairo last week by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi.
The council said any inspection of damaged facilities would require its approval, and warned that implementation would stop if hostile actions, including reinstated UN resolutions, were taken against Iran.
Britain, France and Germany triggered the snapback process on August 28, demanding Iran return to talks and account for missing uranium stockpiles. Unless the Security Council blocks the move, sanctions will automatically resume by late September.
The IAEA reported earlier this month that Iran’s 60% enriched uranium stockpile rose to 440.9 kilograms before the June strikes on its facilities. Grossi said the Cairo deal aims to re-establish monitoring once technical procedures are agreed.
“I read the text of the agreement with the Agency. The text does not state that ‘implementation of this agreement is conditional on no hostile action against Iran, including snapback,’ whereas Araghchi said that in an interview," Hamid Rasaee said.
The hardline cleric said lawmakers attending a Saturday briefing with Araghchi believed this key condition was included in the text, but it was not.
"So the agreement does not prevent the implementation of the snapback mechanism. It was the same in the JCPOA, where the text did not match the claims,” Rasaee wrote on X.
Iranian lawmakers, including the cleric, convened an emergency meeting with Araghchi on Saturday to review the government’s new cooperation agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), signed in Cairo last week.
Neither Araghchi nor Grossi provided any details after signing the agreement.
Rasaee said parliament had not been given access to the text, criticizing Araghchi for keeping it confidential.
"Mr. Araghchi has said that it was agreed with the agency that the text of the agreement must be kept confidential and publishing it would be against diplomatic norms," he said in a video message posted on X Sunday.
According to Rasaee, only parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and the head of the national security and foreign policy committee had received copies of the agreement on Saturday night.
Alleged details
Rasaee said the text of the deal that he reviewed explicitly condemns attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities and also establishes that future inspections will be conducted under a new procedure.
The agreement specifies that the UN nuclear watchdog must carry out its inspections in line with the law passed by Iran’s parliament, he said.
Under the terms, he claimed, inspections of sites that have not been targeted in attacks will only be made upon specific requests.
"Such requests will be reviewed by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, which will decide whether to grant authorization."
For facilities that have been attacked, the arrangement sets out a more restrictive process, according to Rasaee. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran must first perform environmental and related assessments and submit a report.
"That report will be passed to the IAEA only if it is approved by the Supreme National Security Council. Even after that stage, each step of the inspection process requires further approval from the Council. The IAEA will not be permitted to conduct inspections without these clearances."
"The question is: why should the text remain confidential?! If it is a good text, if all our conditions are met in it, why keep it secret?" he said.
Shortly after Rasaee's criticism, Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed it had approved the cooperation protocol, with its secretariat saying the agreement reached between Araghchi and IAEA chief Rafael Grossi had been approved by the council.
The body led by Ali Larijani also said that Tehran will submit reports to the Agency only after the Council’s review.