November 13-2013
Ali-Akbar Velayati (photo) has been named to replace Hassan Rohani as head of the Center for Strategic Research, a foreign policy think-tank operated by the Expediency Council. Rohani had headed the center for two decades. Velayati, who was foreign minister for 16 years in the 1980s and 1990s, will keep his post as senior foreign policy adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi. In the June presidential elections, Velayati came in fifth of the six candidates with 6 percent of the vote.
