What Iran’s top security official said about June 2025 U.S. and Israeli strikes

Ali Larijani was secretary of the Supreme National Security Council in charge of Iran’s nuclear negotiations at the time that this 2025 interview was conducted. Iran confirmed he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in March 2026.

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In a wide-ranging conversation in Tehran, Larijani said Iran had pursued every option to resolve the conflict with the U.S. in a peaceful way and warned President Donald Trump against new attacks, saying there was no chance Iran would surrender. It was Larijani’s first interview with foreign media after he was appointed to his role by the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following the 12-day war with the U.S. and Israel in June 2025.

Larijani was once a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful Iranian paramilitary force, and served as parliament speaker from 2008 to 2020. In the months preceding the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran in February 2026, Larijani was reportedly in charge of the deadly crackdown on Iranian protesters and tasked with shoring up the Islamic Republic’s existence in case of war.

Larijani spoke through an interpreter with FRONTLINE’s Sebastian Walker on Sept. 22, 2025, for our 2025 documentary, "Strike on Iran: The Nuclear Question." This was Larijani's last on-camera interview with an American news outlet before he was killed. See a more complete description of our process here: https://to.pbs.org/4lVZKzA

This interview is being published as part of FRONTLINE’s Transparency Project, an effort to open up the source material behind our documentaries. Read more about this project here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/about-frontlines-transparency-project/

"Strike on Iran: The Nuclear Question" is available to watch here: https://youtu.be/xxBYkhDDfDE

Explore more of our extended interviews in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_pPc6-qR9ZzEepVsKZsT58XiLb38Tttr

#Iran #AliLarijani #Interview

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