Beijing: China on Thursday strongly condemned the killing of Iranian leader Ali Larijani in an Israeli airstrike, calling it “unacceptable.”
“The killing of Iranian leaders and attacks on civilian targets are by no means acceptable,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said during a regular press briefing in response to a related query.
According to Xinhua News Agency, Lin reiterated that China is always against the use of force in international relations.
Iranian media reported on Tuesday that Ali Larijani had been killed, while Israeli leaders also confirmed his death earlier.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the development in a televised address, suggesting that Larijani’s death could create an opportunity for political change within Iran.
Adept at balancing ideological loyalty with pragmatic statecraft, Larijani led Iran’s nuclear policy and strategic diplomacy.
Bespectacled and known for his measured tone, the 68-year-old was believed to enjoy the confidence of the late Khamenei after a long career in the military, media and legislature.
In June 2025, after Iran’s war with Israel and the US, he was appointed head of Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, a position he had held nearly two decades earlier, coordinating defence strategies and overseeing nuclear policy.
He later became increasingly visible in the diplomatic arena, travelling to Gulf states such as Oman and Qatar as Tehran cautiously engaged in negotiations that were ultimately scuppered by the war.
Born in Najaf, Iraq in 1957 to a prominent Shia cleric who was close to the Islamic republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Larijani’s family has been influential within Iran’s political system for decades.
He earned a PhD in Western philosophy from the University of Tehran.
A veteran of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the Iran-Iraq war, Larijani later headed state broadcaster IRIB for a decade from 1994 before serving as parliamentary speaker from 2008 to 2020.