In the aftermath of the Feb. 28 assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, attention has turned to Ali Larijani as the country’s de facto wartime leader. His position as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), roughly analogous to the U.S. national security advisor, places him at the center of Tehran’s strategic decision-making amid the all-out assault on Iran. Many observers now portray Larijani as a pragmatic interlocutor with whom U.S. President