Tehran (AFP) – Israel said Tuesday it had killed Iran’s powerful national security chief, Ali Larijani, in what would be a huge blow to the Islamic republic more than two weeks into the war engulfing the Middle East. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Larijani was “eliminated last night,” although this has not been confirmed by Iran. It comes less than three weeks after US-Israeli strikes on February 28 killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, triggering a regional war with global repercussions.
Larijani, 68, has been described as a “true insider” in Iran, close to the late ayatollah and central to the republic’s nuclear policy and strategic diplomacy over decades. After the war broke out, he became even more powerful. While the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen in public since he was appointed to replace his slain father, Larijani was seen walking with crowds at a pro-government rally last week in Tehran. The reported assassination comes as strikes shook countries across the Middle East on Tuesday, from Gulf nations to Iraq, Lebanon, and Iran. An AFP reporter had earlier Tuesday reported blasts in Tehran, after a night of heavy bombardment mixed with thunder and rain.
Shortly after Israel said it had killed him, Larijani’s official social media profiles posted a handwritten note by him paying tribute to Iranian sailors killed when a US submarine sank an Iranian frigate this month. The note was not dated, nor did the post address the claim of his death, which Iran has not confirmed. Israel also said Tuesday it had killed Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij paramilitary force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, in a strike on Monday in Tehran. It said it had targeted Akram al-Ajouri, head of the military wing of the group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in a strike in Iran, though his death was not confirmed.
Israel has since the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas pursued what analysts have described as a policy of decapitation, targeting the leaders of its enemies, including Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon, as well as top leaders in Gaza. The whereabouts of Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is the subject of much speculation, and US President Donald Trump said Monday that “we don’t know…if he’s dead or not.”
Across the region, hundreds of people have been killed and millions more displaced in the war, which has also sent oil prices soaring. In retaliation for the US-Israel attacks, Iran has targeted US interests, energy facilities, and civilian infrastructure of its energy-rich neighbors. Its threats and attacks on tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of global crude oil passes, have also all but closed the key waterway. Oil prices surged around three percent Tuesday after several countries pushed back on Trump’s demand they help secure the strait by sending warships to escort tankers.
The US president has warned that it would be “very bad” for the future of the NATO military alliance if the allies refused to help. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said London was working with allies to craft a “viable” plan to reopen the strait but ruled out a NATO mission. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday the war was “not a matter for NATO,” while EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels indicated no appetite to join the conflict. Analysts said it was not surprising that America’s partners were unenthusiastic about joining a war they were not consulted on, after a year of tensions with Washington on everything from tariffs to Greenland.
The United States had “launched a war without consulting allies, expecting them to mop up the mess, and that’s not going to fly,” said Erwan Lagadec of George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Trump has also appealed to China to help on the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump on Monday admitted he was “shocked” at Iran’s response to the US-Israel attacks, saying: “They weren’t supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East. Those missiles were set to go after them. So, they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked.” Falling debris from a missile intercept killed one person on Tuesday in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi and injured two medical staff in Kuwait, authorities said. The UAE’s oil industrial zone of Fujairah was also hit on Tuesday morning, sparking a fire but causing no injuries, local authorities said.
Israel carried out new strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday and again ordered residents of vast parts of southern Lebanon to evacuate. More than a million people have been displaced across Lebanon, while Israeli strikes have killed 886 people, including 67 women and 111 children, since March 2, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Lebanon was drawn into the war when Tehran-backed Hezbollah militants struck Israel over Khamenei’s killing. The war is also spreading to Iraq, which has long been a proxy battleground between the United States and Iran but has sought to avoid taking sides.
A drone and rocket attack targeted the US embassy in Baghdad early Tuesday, while a strike killed four people at a house reportedly hosting Iranian advisors, security officials said.
© 2024 AFP
