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UPDATED ON MAY 21, 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n In a swift move following the deaths of the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian<\/a>, the regime’s president Ebrahim Raisi, and other senior officials in a helicopter crash on May 19, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has appointed Ali Bagheri Kani as the acting Foreign Minister. Bagheri Kani, formerly the deputy foreign minister, will lead the regime’s foreign service until new presidential elections are held on June 28.<\/span><\/p>\n The appointment comes amid turbulent times in Tehran, with the regime’s legislative branch still undecided and power struggles intensifying at an unprecedented pace. Bagheri Kani’s role as the acting Foreign Minister will be crucial in maintaining continuity in Khamenei’s foreign policy agenda with many crises and unprecedented international isolation to cope with.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n PUBLISHED ON SEPTEMBER 29, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n Ali Bagheri Kani has been linked to Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry for much of his career and has described himself as a \u201cdiplomat\u201d since the 1990s. He was a fierce critic of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and as deputy to the foreign minister, he is now in a position to help grow Tehran\u2019s hostility toward the International Atomic Energy Agency. Although the JCPOA is in more serious jeopardy<\/a> than ever before, it remains the primary focus of Western policy, and so it is worthwhile to learn what impact Bagheri Kani might have on the situation.<\/p>\n Born in October 1967 in the northwestern Kan District of Tehran, Ali Bagheri Kani received a Ph.D. in economics from Imam Sadegh University. The state institution has been an incubator for the careers of some of the Iranian regime\u2019s most trusted officials and has been run by the Bagheri Kani family for four decades. Many nuclear scientists and intelligence agents owe their credentials to this elite academy. Among them are Khamenei’s daughter Hoda and her husband Mesbah ol-Hoda, who happens to be Ali Bagheri Kani\u2019s brother.<\/p>\n Ali Bagheri Kani\u2019s father, Mohammad-Bagher, has been a faculty member of this university since its very foundation and his brother Mohammad-Reza (who changed his last name from Bagheri Kani to Mahdavi Kani), was heading the university until his death.<\/p>\n Ali Bagheri Kani\u2019s father, Mohammad-Bagher has also been a member of the regime\u2019s Expediency Council and his uncle Mohammad-Reza has been a cabinet minister, interim prime minister, head of Imam Sadegh University, and head of the Expediency Council. Because of his brother\u2019s marriage to the Supreme Leader\u2019s daughter, Ali Bagheri Kani is literally considered \u2018within the family\u2019.<\/p>\n While campaigning<\/a> for Saeed Jalili, he revealed his mindset when he was discussing international affairs at the end of the interview. He told the host: \u201cWhen discussing the nuclear dossier, Iran is defending the country\u2019s soft borders and its rights. If we give in, just as they (the former administration) did before, they (the West) will have no limits. In the last rounds of talks, when we were apparently cooperating with them, they eventually asked us to dismantle our entire nuclear fuel cycle\u2026 By smart resistance vis-\u00e0-vis the enemy, we will solidify our rights, turn threats into opportunities as well as preserve the country\u2019s dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n Ali Bagheri Kani is no stranger to negotiations between Tehran and the West. Under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he was involved in direct talks with the American delegation while Saeed Jalili was heading the talks<\/a> with the current CIA director William Burns. In October 2009, for a short period of time, both parties met in Geneva, in the courtyard of a hotel where no reporters were allowed.<\/p>\n In February 2009, while conducting an interview with the state-run Ofogh TV, he explicitly stressed that \u2018the aim of negotiations is defending our identity rather than reaching an agreement.\u2019 He clearly explained how the Iranian delegation was dragging its feet and stalling the negotiations to gain technical advancements at the Fordow and Arak sites to gain leverage at the negotiating table. He also claimed that the West was only persuaded to deal with Iran once they learned that Iran had achieved 20% uranium enrichment.<\/p>\n In 2013, while debating on state-run TV Channel 3, Ali Bagheri Kani claimed that Tehran\u2019s persistence had forced the United States to walk back its demands. He said: \u201cOnce the Americans would say that they won\u2019t enter the negotiations until Iran suspends (uranium enrichment). But then they were forced to retreat and despite our refusal to suspend, they did enter the negotiations. Also, they argued that they won\u2019t discuss sanctions (relief) if we would not suspend enrichment. Again, they were forced to do it anyway. They had a set of retreats until the Almaty 1 session.\u201d<\/p>\n In May 2020, he explained how the regime used the nuclear talks to extort the West. He told the TV host: \u201cWhen we started negotiating in 2003, Iran had no leverage, thus we accepted the suspension of uranium enrichment\u2026 Some people didn\u2019t believe that the nuclear program is a power component, arguing that we are not seeking nuclear weapons\u2026 But sensitive and complex technologies have dual purposes. Only governments invest in such technology because it has a military dimension\u2026 We wanted the centrifuges to keep spinning so that the wheels of our economies can spin as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Ali Bagheri Kani also shares Khamenei\u2019s deep mistrust in the West, especially the United States.<\/p>\n As an introduction of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman’s autobiography ‘Not for the Faint of Heart<\/em>‘, Bagheri Kani wrote: “The outcome of diplomacy with the United States practically denied Iran’s rights and shut down many of our nuclear activities. In addition, the (nuclear) deal stabilized the sanctions\u2019 structure and maintained the economic sanctions. In other words, the outcome of diplomacy with the U.S. was unmitigated damage.”<\/p>\n On December 29, 2017, Ebrahim Raisi replaced Mohammad-Javad Larijani from the Head of the Human Rights Office of the Judiciary after 14 years and replaced him with Ali Bagheri Kani. Mohammad-Javad is a brother to former Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and to Sadegh Amoli Larijani, the current head of the Expediency Council. Both brothers have increasingly grown at odds with Khamenei\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n In September 2018, Sadegh Larijani, the then head of the Judiciary and the chairman of the board of trustees at Imam Sadegh University, took over the presidency from the Bagheri Kani family and appointed Hossein Ali Saadi as the new head of the university for three years. This seems to have been retaliation against Ebrahim Raisi who removed his brother from the Judiciary.<\/p>\n The Judiciary Human Rights HQ, which has been operating since 2005, is supposed to be responsible for \u201callegations of human rights violations in Iran\u201d as a representative of the regime in international platforms and organizations. For years, Mohammad Javad Larijani was responsible for whitewashing and legitimizing severe human rights abuses in the most barbaric and oppressive regime in modern history. It is a job that Ali Bagheri Kani has proven to be perfectly matched for.<\/p>\n On December 18, 2020, responding to the European Parliament resolution criticizing the human rights violations in Iran, he told Radio Free Europe: “Europeans are now accused of killing dozens of sick Iranian children, so they do not have the authority to defend human rights. They do not even have the authority to talk about animal rights.”<\/p>\n Expressing the regime\u2019s detestation regarding Iran\u2019s main opposition group, the People\u2019s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI), and responding to the European Parliament’s request to allow in the EU Special Rapporteur for Iran, Bagheri Kani said: \u201cIt suffices to walk in the corridors of the European Parliament to see terrorists whose hands are stained with the blood of 17,000 innocent Iranian citizens.”<\/p>\n On February 24, 2020, addressing the United Nations General Assembly on behalf of the Iranian regime, Ali Bagheri Kani tried to paint the dictatorship as a victim in order to deflect worldwide condemnations of its human rights record and to push for relief from US sanctions.<\/p>\n In April 2020, when Germany designated Hezbollah as a terrorist group, Ali Bagheri Kani told<\/a> Iranian state TV: \u201cThe new approach by the judiciary means engaging in international affairs. The new approach suggests that any action against Iran should bear expenses. \u00a0Countries are not supposed to act against Iran and just walk away without paying the price for it. As we have shown in the military front that any country, even the United States if it wants to take action against us, it has to pay the price. One day, its drone is taken down; the other day, its official military camp in another country gets hit by the Islamic Republic\u2019s missiles. In the legal field and in politics and all other domains, we have to act in a way that they don\u2019t feel there is a comfort zone to use it against the Iranian nation.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview in 2020, he also revealed his soft spot for the slain Quds Force commander Ghassem Soleimani, claiming: \u201cThe countries of the region owe their independence, human rights, and sovereign integrity to Haj Ghassem.\u201d<\/p>\n While speaking on state-run TV in May 2020, he said: \u201cIn the West, there is no such thing as amnesty or offering clemency. When being questioned by us, they argued that if there\u2019s amnesty, then the punishment wouldn\u2019t make sense anymore. Westerners do not understand the paternal view we have toward the prisoner. But in Iran, we have two sorts of prisoners; disciplinary prisoners and prisoners who are behind bars for punishment\u2026 Those who are in jail to be disciplined can be offered clemency. Our Judiciary\u2019s approach was a unique initiative for many other countries. But other countries have asked why we\u2019re doing this and copied our approach.\u201d<\/p>\nA Privileged Upbringing<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\nKey positions in the university:<\/h3>\n
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Ali Bagheri Kani\u2019s career<\/h3>\n
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\u2018The Diplomat\u2019<\/h3>\n
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Human rights in the Judiciary<\/h3>\n
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