Israel says Iran's security chief and de facto leader Ali Larijani has been killed in strikes on Tehran. Photo / Getty Images
Iran’s security chief and de facto leader was assassinated in overnight strikes on Tehran, Israel says.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s national security council, was “eliminated” in the most significant blow to the Islamic Republic’s leadership since the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
The IDF said it bombed security headquarters in Tehran, including those belonging to the Iranian intelligence ministry and its Basij paramilitary force.
Iran has not confirmed the death of Larijani. In an apparent effort to show he was alive, a handwritten tribute to Iranian “martyrs” was posted on his Twitter account this morning.
However, Israel Katz, Benjamin Netanyahu’s defence minister, said Larijani was killed overnight with Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of the Basij paramilitary group.
“Larijani and the Basij commander were eliminated overnight and joined the head of the annihilation programme, Khamenei, and all the eliminated members of the axis of evil, in the depths of hell,” Katz said this morning, according to his office.
The IDF later said in a statement that Larijani had been eliminated, describing him as “the effective leader of the Iranian terror regime”.
Military officials said it was a “significant blow” to Iran and that Larijani had been “calling the shots”, despite the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader and official successor to his father.
While Khamenei has not been seen in public since his father was killed on the opening day of the war, Larijani was filmed walking defiantly among crowds of people during a march in Tehran on Friday.
He was seen alongside Masoud Pezeshkian, the president, for the annual Quds Day rally as American and Israeli bombs struck buildings along their route.
Larijani spent years preparing for how to keep the Islamic Republic alive if its leadership were decapitated. Senior officials said he was “officially running everything”, with Pezeshkian serving as a public face to potentially take the blame for failures.
Thirty years of loyal service as an adviser, diplomat and scholar meant Ali Khamenei trusted Larijani more than anyone in the regime, assigning him to oversee succession planning and crisis management.
He was viewed as a leading contender to steer the country through diplomatic talks toward peace and helped stabilise the regime since Khamenei was assassinated.
By controlling the flow of information, managing alliances and steering diplomatic channels, he was key to preventing factional infighting and civil unrest.
Larijani understood how to navigate Iran’s political system and had been involved in discussions with foreign powers, flying to Moscow earlier this year, where he met with Middle Eastern leaders.
An IDF official said on Tuesday that it was Larijani who instructed attacks against Israel and Iran’s neighbours after the start of the war last month.
The official added that his death would be a blow to the regime’s war machine and ability to suppress its own people.
Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, has not commented on the assassination, but his office posted a picture of him on the phone as he ordered “the elimination of senior Iranian regime officials”.
Dozens of senior officials, including Ali Khamenei, and thousands of members of Iran’s military and security forces have been killed in more than two weeks of US-Israeli airstrikes.
Larijani’s reported death follows questions over the whereabouts and health of Mojtaba Khamenei.
Iranian state media carried a brief statement from the supreme leader on Monday, saying that all those appointed to positions of power by his father would “continue to carry on with their work”.
After he was selected by Iran’s Assembly of Experts as the successor to his father, he issued a statement vowing to “avenge the blood” of Iranians killed in airstrikes.
However, he has not been seen in public and the Telegraph revealed on Monday how he survived US and Israeli airstrikes because he stepped outside for a walk in his garden minutes before his home was hit by missiles.
Leaked audio revealed that Mojtaba Khamenei was targeted in the same attack that killed his father and other members of the Islamic Republic’s leadership.
But he went outside “to do something” moments before Israeli Blue Sparrow ballistic missiles hit his residence at 9.32am local time on February 28.
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