(Bloomberg) --

The speaker of Iran’s parliament, veteran politician Ali Larijani, has tested positive for coronavirus and is in quarantine, the legislature’s public affairs office said Thursday.

Larijani is the most senior Iranian official to contract the virus, joining two dozen MPs, a vice president and various ministry officials.

After running parliament for 12 years, Larijani didn’t contest this year’s elections and is due to be replaced as speaker. But his successor is yet to be appointed as the country battles one of the world’s worst virus outbreaks.

As a lawmaker, Larijani represented the city of Qom, where Iran’s first virus cases were detected. He’s a former political aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and close to the hard-line clerical establishment. But showing a pragmatic streak, he supported President Hassan Rouhani’s policy of diplomacy with world powers, and has been considered a future presidential candidate.

Iran has reported more than 50,000 cases of the virus and 3,160 deaths,

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