- Ali Akbar Velayati
Dr. Ali Akbar Velayati (علیاکبر ولایتی; born
June 25 ,1945 inShemiran ) is anIran ian politician and a formerpediatrician , currently an Advisor in International Affairs to theSupreme Leader . He was the Foreign Minister of Iran for about 16 years (December 15 ,1981 –August 20 ,1997 ), making him the longest-serving Foreign Minister in Iranian history.Velayati served for two terms under Prime Minister
Mir-Hossein Mousavi from 1981 to 1988 and then two more terms under PresidentHashemi Rafsanjani from 1988 to 1997.After winning the presidential election on
October 13 ,1981 , PresidentAli Khamenei proposed Velayati as his prime minister to theMajlis of Iran , but Majlis voted against him (74/80/38) onOctober 22 . Khamenei later proposed Mir-Hossein Mousavi who gained Majlis's approval.Velayati acquired his M.D. from
University of Tehran and pediatrics degrees from theJohns Hopkins University , respectively in 1971 and 1974.Velayati was under consideration by the conservative alliance of Iran as a possible candidate for Iranian presidential election of 2005, but he announced that he does not accept candidacy of the conservative alliance and will run as an Independent. He finally decided not to run. It's been said widely because he did not want to run against
Hashemi Rafsanjani .External links
* [http://www.velayati.ir Official presidential website]
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