Former Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi was seriously injured in the strike, which also claimed the life of his wife. According to Iranian media reports, his home in Tehran was the target of a US-Israeli strike on Wednesday.
“Dr. Kamal Kharazi was injured in today’s bombardment of residential buildings in Tehran by the American-Zionist enemy,” Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported. An 81-year-old man was seriously injured and hospitalized after the attack.
Who is Kamal Kharazi?
A highly influential figure in Tehran’s corridors of power, Kharazi was an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
An academic, Kharazi received his doctorate in industrial psychology from the University of Houston, where he was also an educator in 1975-76.
Kharazi was a founding member of the Islamic Research Institute in London and held a number of government, diplomatic and academic posts during his career.
From 1980 to 1989, he was the president of the Islamic Republic News Agency, and during the Iran-Iraq War, he served as a member of Iran’s Supreme Defense Council and a military spokesman.
As Khamenei’s foreign policy adviser, Kharazi played a key role in Iran, particularly during the recent nuclear talks with Washington.
Kamal Kharazi spoke to CNN last month
Kharazi, who served as foreign minister from 1997 to 2005 under reformist former president Mohammad Khatami, is still an adviser to the Iranian government and gave an interview to CNN a few weeks ago.
In his March 9 interview, Kharazi, who ruled out diplomacy for now, told CNN that the war would end only in economic pain — signaling a hardening of the government’s stance on day 10 of the conflict.
“I don’t see any more room for diplomacy. Because Donald Trump cheated others and didn’t keep his promises, and we experienced that in two negotiations, that while we were engaged in negotiations, they hit us,” Kharazi told CNN.
Kamal Kharazi’s role in talks with the US
According to reports, he recently became involved in negotiations between the US and Iran to end the war. Kharazi oversaw talks with Pakistan about a possible meeting between Iranian officials and US Vice President JD Vance.
Why was Kamal Kharazi targeted?
While neither the US nor Israel claimed responsibility for the attack that injured Kharazi, critics have accused Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of being behind it and say it was the latest attempt by Jerusalem to sabotage any US-Iran talks to end the ongoing war.
The US and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran on February 28, and more than a month later, the war continues with no immediate end in sight.
