Kamal Kharrazi, Iran's former foreign minister and head of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, died on the evening of April 10 from injuries sustained in a US-Israeli strike on his home, Eqtesad Online reported.

Kharrazi was severely wounded on April 1 when his apartment was hit in an Israeli strike on his apartment block. His wife was killed instantly in the same attack, which was seen as an act of terror on residential blocks in uptown Tehran.

Kharrazi served as Iran's foreign minister from 1997 to 2005 under President Mohammad Khatami, making him the 62nd holder of the post. He had led the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations since 2006 and was a member of the Expediency Discernment Council by appointment of the supreme leader since 2022.

It was understood that Kharrazi was working in the background for peace talks between the United States and the Iranian government but was stopped by the targeted attack on the residential apartment. 

Born in Tehran in 1944, Kharrazi studied Arabic and educational sciences at the University of Tehran before obtaining a doctorate in educational management from the University of Houston in Texas. He held the rank of full professor at Tehran University's faculty of psychology and educational sciences.

After the 1979 revolution, Kharrazi held a series of senior posts, including head of programme management at the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, deputy foreign minister for political affairs, head of the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, and managing director of the Islamic Republic News Agency.

During the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, he headed the war propaganda headquarters. He served as Iran's permanent representative to the United Nations from 1989 to 1997 under President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

His tenure as foreign minister coincided with the Taliban attack on the Iranian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998.

Kharrazi is among the most senior Iranian figures to have been killed in the war, which began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Several other key former figures were also targeted in the early days of the more than six-weeks war, including former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He has not been seen since the attack on his house in eastern Tehran. Neighbours and security were reportedly killed in that attack but he was believed to have survived.