Hassan Rouhani

Biography

Hassan Rouhani was born Hassan Fereydoun in 1948 near Semnan. He began religious studies in 1960 and trained at the Qom seminary, took a law degree at the University of Tehran in 1972, and much later earned an MPhil and a doctorate in law at Glasgow Caledonian University. As a young cleric he followed Ayatollah Khomeini and gave speeches against the Shah, for which he was repeatedly arrested.

After the 1979 revolution he sat in parliament from 1980 to 2000, serving as deputy speaker, and held senior defence posts during the Iran-Iraq War. He was the first secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2005 and, from 2003 to 2005, led Iran's nuclear talks with Britain, France and Germany. He also sat on the Expediency Council and the Assembly of Experts and headed the Center for Strategic Research.

Running as a moderate, he won the 2013 presidential election and was re-elected in 2017. His government negotiated the 2013 interim nuclear deal and the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with world powers. His second term was marked by economic hardship and the protests of 2017 and 2018, and he left office in 2021.