Ali Baqeri-Kani was born in 1967 and graduated from Imam Sadeq University with a degree in economics and Islamic studies. In the 1990s, he briefly worked at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) before working for the Foreign Ministry and its international directorate. In 2007, Saeed Jalili was appointed Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and left the Foreign Ministry. He convinced Baqeri-Kani, who was briefly European Affairs deputy at the time, to go the SNSC Secretariate in 2008.Baqeri-Kani acted as Jalili’s deputy at the SNSC through the end of the Ahmadinejad administration in 2013. Jalili and Baqeri-Kani were the lead nuclear negotiators for the Islamic Republic. Their term was marked by Tehran’s intransigence, increasing international isolation, and mounting sanctions imposed by the United Nations, the United States, and the European Union.
In 2013, Baqeri-Kani acted as the campaign director for Jalili’s unsuccessful run for the presidency. After the Rouhani Administration assumed to office in 2013, Baqeri-Kani was promptly removed from the SNSC, subsequently acting as a critic of nuclear negotiations that culminated in the JCPOA on IRGC-linked television outlets like the Ofogh network. He also wrote on the subject for a website linked to the Basij paramilitary University and Imam Sadeq University. Furthermore, he penned an unusually long 33-page introduction to the Persian translation of the memoir of American official Wendy Sherman about the nuclear negotiations, during which he defended negotiations under his tenure and Jalili’s and criticized the Rouhani administration.
In 2019, then-Judiciary branch chief Ebrahim Raisi appointed Baqeri-Kani as international affairs deputy and the director of the Judiciary Human Rights Center. That signaled that Baqeri-Kani had become closer to Raisi, the political stocks of whom were rising, and abandoned Jalili, the political influence of which has been waning (Jalili ran and lost again in the 2021 presidential race). Baqeri-Kani was among several former Jalili associates who had become closer to Raisi in recent years.
Established in the 2000s, the Judiciary Human Rights Center acts as the diplomatic affairs arm of the Judiciary branch and represents the Islamic Republic in international conventions to answer allegations and accusations of human rights violations. Baqeri-Kani’s predecessor was Javad Larijani, an adviser to Supreme Leader and brother of former Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani. At the Judiciary Human Rights Center, Javad Larijani denied reports that have documented and alleged human rights violations in Iran, and attacked international human rights centers. Larijani also rejected international human rights conventions, arguing for the regime’s “Islamic” human rights conventions. Baqeri-Kani essentially continued those actions and sought to globalize the regime’s so-called Islamic human rights conventions.
After Raisi was declared winner in the 2021 presidential race, Iranian media speculated whether Baqeri-Kani would be the next Foreign Minister since he was photographed in Raisi’s meetings with foreign dignitaries. However, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who has had deep connections to the Qods Force and more experience in the Foreign Ministry, was eventually tapped as the Foreign Minister. Furthermore, from a policy angle, Amir-Abdollahian has worked on Arab affairs, and his selection reflects Raisi’s policy priority of focusing on improving ties with neighboring countries.