Ali Akbar Velayati

Ali Akbar Velayati
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 15 December 1981 – 20 August 1997
President	Ali Khamenei Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Prime Minister	Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Preceded by	Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Succeeded by	Kamal Kharazi
Member of Parliament of Iran
In office 3 May 1980 – 15 December 1981
Constituency	Tehran
Personal details
Born	otherparty Islamic Republican Party (1979–1987) (1945-06-25) 25 June 1945 Tehran, Iran
Died	otherparty Islamic Republican Party (1979–1987)
Resting place	otherparty Islamic Republican Party (1979–1987)
Political party	Islamic Coalition Party
Spouse(s)	Maryam Velayati (1980–2003, her death) Leyla Enayati (2007–present)
Children	6
Parent	otherparty Islamic Republican Party (1979–1987)
Alma mater	University of Tehran Johns Hopkins University
Signature
Website	Official website

Ali Akbar Velayati (علی‌اکبر ولایتی; born 25 June 1945 in Tehran) is an Iranian politician, academic and diplomat. He was the Minister of Foreign Affairs for more than sixteen years from 1981 to 1997 under Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Presidents Ali Khamenei and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He is the first and only person that have held this position for more than ten years. He was a candidate in 2013 presidential election who lost.

Early life and education

Ali Akbar Velayati was born in Rostamabad village in Shemiran, Tehran on 25 June 1945. He was matriculated into Tehran University of Medial Sciences in 1964. Velayati finished his studies in pediatrics before moving to Johns Hopkins University for a fellowship in infectious diseases. In the meantime, Velayati taught at university and is an active member of such influential bodies as the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, Expediency Council and Islamic Encyclopedia Foundation. During the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah, Velayati was arrested by the intelligence service SAVAK when he was 17.

Political career

Member of the Parliament

After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, he was elected as a member of the parliament from his home town in parliamentary election of that year. He was also a Deputy Minister of Health from November 1980 to July 1981 in the cabinet of Mohammad-Ali Rajai.

Appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs

After winning the presidential election on 13 October 1981, then President Ali Khamenei proposed Velayati as his prime minister to the Parliament of Iran, but Parliament voted against him on 22 October. Khamenei later proposed Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who gained Parliament's approval.

After Mousavi was elected as prime minister, Velayati was appointed a Minister of Foreign Affairs in his first cabinet. He later held this position in Mousavi's second cabinet. After election of Hashemi Rafsanjani as new president, he retain in his post until 1997, when Rafsanjani's term was ended. In November 1986, Velayati argued that Iran should have diplomatic ties with all countries. He remained in that post for two more terms under then President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from 1989 to 1997. Currently he is an advisor on International Affairs to the Supreme Leader of Iran. After his resignation as Minister of Foreign Affaris, Velayati was then appointed foreign affairs advisor to Ali Khamenei and has since held this post.

AMIA Terrorist Attack

In November 2006, Argentine Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corra issued international arrest warrants for Velayati, six other Iranians and one Lebanese in connection with the AMIA Terror attack in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which resulted in the death of 85 people and serious injuries to 151. The attack on the Jewish Cultural Center came two years after the 1992 terrorist bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. Ali Akbar Velayati has been on the official Wanted list of Interpol since March 2007, for allegations of "Aggravated Murder and Damages" related to the 1994 AMIA bombing case.

Later years

He was appointed to the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations in 2006. Velayati appears to be close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, serving as his advisor on international affairs today and writing the introduction to Khamenei’s book Palestine. Velayati, a hardliner who has described Iran as the "backbone" of the Muslim world, has frequently condemned the United States and Israel. He compared former United States President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler in 2002, and said efforts by reformist president Mohammad Khatami to draw closer to the US had proven that Washington had not changed its stance since 1979.

Presidential campaigns

2005 presidential election

Velayati was under consideration by the conservative alliance of Iran as a possible candidate for 2005 presidential election, but he announced that he did not accept candidacy of the conservative alliance and would run as an Independent. He finally decided not to run. It was speculated that he did not want to run against Rafsanjani.

2013 presidential election

He was announced his nomination for the 2013 presidential election and is supported by some conservative groups. He plans a strong external relationships with community reconciliation and holding more relations with Europe and the United States. He also has criticized President Ahmadinejad's foreign policy. He received 2,268,753 of the votes, comes on the fifth place.

Works

Velayati has had a large number of books and academic works published, including:

• Dynamism of Islamic and Iranian Culture and Civilization
• Iran and the Question of Palestine
• Iran and the Developments of Palestine
• Historical Crisis of Iranian Identity
• Intellectual Prelude to Constitutional Movement
• History of Iran Foreign Relations under Shah Abbas Safavid I
• History of Iran Foreign Relations under Shah Ismail Safavid II
• Political History of the Iraqi Imposed War Against the Islamic Republic of Iran
• History of Iran Foreign Relations under Nasser addin Shah and Mozaffar addin Shah
• Tuberculosis
• Infectious Diseases