Who is Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s acting foreign minister?
Al Jazeera
The caretaker foreign minister’s name has been heavily involved in Iran’s nuclear programme negotiations over the years.
Ali Bagheri Kani, a 57-year-old political insider with a history of serving in Iran’s diplomatic and security apparatuses, has been appointed interim foreign minister following the death of the man he is replacing, Hossein Amirabdollahian.
Amirabdollahian died on Sunday in a helicopter crash in Iran’s mountainous East Azerbaijan province, alongside President Ebrahim Raisi and several other officials and staff.
Bagheri Kani is the logical choice to come in as acting foreign minister – he had been Amirabdollahian’s deputy for political affairs.
The new foreign minister was born in a village just north of the capital Tehran to a conservative family that helped establish and strengthen Iran.
Family members have had prominent roles in the country. His father, the now 98-year-old prominent cleric Mohammad-Bagher Bagheri Kani, is a former member of parliament and the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body tasked with appointing a successor to the 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
