Ali Khatami is the younger brother of former

Iranian president The president of Iran ( fa, رئیس‌جمهور ایران, Rayis Jomhur-e Irān) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The president is the second highest-ranking official of Iran after the Supreme Leader. The president ...

Mohammad Khatami Sayyid Mohammad Khatami ( fa, سید محمد خاتمی, ; born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 to ...

, and served as his chief of staff during his second term in office. Khatami was born to

Ruhollah Khatami :''(Not to be confused with Ruhollah Khomeini who was the leader of the 1979 Iranian revolution)'' Ruhollah Khatami (28 October 1906 – 27 October 1988) was a senior Iranian cleric in the city of Yazd. In July 1982, he was appointed as prayer l ...

, alongside older siblings Fatemeh Khatami and Mohammed Khatami and younger brother,

Mohammad-Reza Khatami Mohammad-Reza Khatami ( fa, محمدرضا خاتمی, born 1959) is an Iranian politician and nephrologist. Early life and education Khatami was born in Ardakan, Iran, in 1959. He is younger brother of former president Mohammad Khatami. Khatami ...

. He lived in

Fort Lee, New Jersey Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop the Palisades. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the borough's population was 40,191. As of the 2010 U.S. census, th ...

while pursuing a master's degree in

Industrial Engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex process (engineering), processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, kno ...

Polytechnic University in Brooklyn The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...

. In 2000, during his brother's first term as President of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, rumors circulated in the Iranian press that Ali Khatami was involved in the distribution of "videotapes in which the officials of the system were insulted". These rumors were denied by the President's office, and described as an effort to exert pressure on the President by showing his family in a damaging light. In 2001, Mohammed Khatami named Ali as his chief of staff, after being elected to a second term as President.

References

"The Iranian Nuclear Issue and Informal Networks", Naval War College Review

Notes

Iranian engineers 1953 births Living people Polytechnic Institute of New York University alumni Islamic Iran Participation Front politicians {{iran-politician-stub