Israel Has Assassinated Iran’s Top Security Official, Killing The Most Senior Official Since Khamenei
Netanyahu said the assassination was aimed at weakening Iran’s leadership and giving Iranians the power to overthrow the government.
Israel has killed Iran’s top security leader Ali Larijani, marking one of the highest-profile assassinations since the killing of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Larijani was Iran’s security chief and was a key decision-maker in Iran’s war, diplomacy and national security issues.
A conservative but pragmatic figure, he had played an important role in past nuclear negotiations before the US and Israel’s war on Iran.
Following Khamenei’s death on Feb. 28, Larijani condemned the US and Israel and vowed he would “deliver an unforgettable lesson to the hellish international oppressors.”
He was also seen as a central figure in managing the country’s power transition after Khamenei’s death, according to Al Jazeera.
Iranian state media reported on Tuesday, March 17, that Larijani was killed overnight, along with the head of one of Iran’s paramilitary forces, Gholamreza Soleimani.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the assassination was aimed at weakening Iran’s leadership and giving Iranians the power to overthrow the government.
“This morning we eliminated Ali Larijani, the boss of the Revolutionary Guards, which is the gang of gangsters that actually runs Iran,” Netanyahu said. “If we persist in this, we will give them a chance to take their fate into their own hands.”
The killing is part of a broader campaign in which the US and Israel have targeted senior Iranian officials, raising concerns about a growing power vacuum that could destroy future negotiations to end the war.
Earlier this month, US president Donald Trump suggested many of Iran’s leadership figures had already been killed.
“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” he told reporters on March 3 at the Oval Office. “Now we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. So you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon we’re not going to know anybody.”
On Wednesday, March 18, Iran’s president also confirmed Israel killed its intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib.
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