Ali Akbar Velayati

Ali Akbar Velayati (Persian: علی‌اکبر ولایتی pronunciation ; born 24 June 1945) is an Iranian conservative politician and physician. Velayati is a professor at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

Ali Akbar Velayati
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 15 December 1981 – 20 August 1997
President	Ali Khamenei Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Prime Minister	Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Preceded by	Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Succeeded by	Kamal Kharazi
Member of Parliament
In office 28 May 1980 – 15 December 1981
Constituency	Tehran, Rey and Shemiranat
Majority	858,305 (52.5%)
Personal details
Born	(1945-06-24) 24 June 1945 Shemiranat County, Iran
Political party	Islamic Association of Physicians of Iran Islamic Coalition Party[1]
Other political affiliations	Islamic Republican Party (1979–1987) National Front (1961–1970s) Iran Pen Society (1999–present)
Spouse(s)	Shirin Khoshnevisan (1980–2003, her death) Leyla Enayati (2007–present)[2]
Children	6
Alma mater	Tehran University of Medical Sciences Johns Hopkins University
Awards	Order of Knowledge (1st class)[3]
Signature
Website	Official website

He is a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader in international affairs and head of the board of founders and the board of trustees of the Islamic Azad University.

He is also a member of Iranian Science and Culture Hall of Fame, Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, Expediency Discernment Council's President of Center for Strategic Research and senior fellow of Iranian Academy of Medical Sciences.

He was the Minister of Foreign Affairs for more than fifteen years from December 1981 to August 1997 under Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Presidents Ali Khamenei and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

He is the first and only person to have held this position for more than ten years. He was a candidate in 2013 presidential election and lost, coming fifth out of the six candidates garnering 2,268,753 votes, which was 6.18% of the votes.

On 12 March 2020, it was reported that Velayati been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019. He was reported to be under quarantine.[4]