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IN BRIEF
- Israeli strike kills Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani, a key powerbroker, intensifying the conflict.
- His son and his deputy were also killed in the attack.
Iran has confirmed that Ali Larijani, the nation’s prominent security chief, was killed in an Israeli strike. This marks the most high-profile assassination since the United States and Israel initiated military actions against Iran late last month.
In related developments, a high-ranking Iranian official revealed that Iran’s new supreme leader has turned down offers for de-escalation that were presented through intermediary nations.
Larijani was regarded as one of Iran’s most influential leaders and was closely allied with the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son, Mojtaba, who succeeded him. Known for his pragmatic approach, Larijani maintained constructive relationships with various factions within the Iranian government and with foreign diplomats.
The Supreme National Security Council of Iran, which Larijani headed as secretary, confirmed his death. The council also reported that Larijani’s son and his deputy, Alireza Bayat, were killed in the same Israeli attack on Monday night.
This series of targeted assassinations occurs amidst a conflict that has spanned over three weeks, involving the United States and Israel against Iran. The ongoing hostilities have escalated into a regional crisis, with little indication of any imminent resolution.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly castigated allied countries in recent days for their cool response to his requests for military help to restore the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, rejected proposals conveyed to Iran’s foreign ministry for “reducing tensions or ceasefire with the United States,” according to a senior Iranian official who asked not to be identified.
Khamenei, attending his first foreign-policy meeting since his appointment, said it was not “the right time for peace until the United States and Israel are brought to their knees, accept defeat, and pay compensation,” according to the official.
The Strait of Hormuz, a transit point for a fifth of the global oil trade, remains largely closed as Iran threatens to attack tankers linked to the US and Israel. Oil prices have soared.
Iran army vows revenge for Larijani’s killing
Iranian army chief Amir Hatami said on Wednesday to launch a “decisive and regrettable” retaliation for the killing of Larijani.
“Iran’s response to the assassination of the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council will be decisive and regrettable,” Hatami said.
The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s powerful military force that is separate from the army, said in a statement that it had launched missiles at central Israel “in revenge for the blood of martyr Dr Ali Larijani and his companions”.
The US has given shifting rationales for joining Israel to attack Iran and struggled to explain the legal basis for starting a new war, underscored by the Tuesday (local time) resignation of the head of the US National Counterterrorism Center, Joseph Kent. Kent wrote in his resignation letter to Trump that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation.”
Most US allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have told Trump they don’t want to get involved in the conflict, he said on Tuesday, describing their position as “a very foolish mistake.”
“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID!” Trump wrote on social media, also singling out Japan, Australia and South Korea.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in an interview that nobody was ready to risk the lives of their people in protecting the strait.
“We have to find diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a food crisis, fertilisers crisis, energy crisis as well,” Kallas said.
Oil prices rose about 3 per cent on Wednesday AEDT as Iran renewed its strikes on oil facilities in the United Arab Emirates, and are up around 45 per cent since the start of the war on 28 February, raising concerns of a renewed spike in global inflation. The World Food Programme said tens of millions of people will face acute hunger if the war continues through June.
Who was Ali Larijani?
When Israeli and US strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the Middle East war, Larijani briefly became even more powerful than he had been for decades.
Last June’s 12-day Israeli air assault boosted the long-time insider’s profile. During the first two weeks of the current war, Larijani played a far more visible role than Iran’s new supreme leader.
In a telling contrast, the security chief was seen walking with crowds at a pro-government rally last week in Tehran, a sign of defiance against Israel and the United States.
Adept at balancing ideological loyalty with pragmatic statecraft, Larijani led Iran’s nuclear policy and strategic diplomacy.
Bespectacled and known for his measured tone, the 68-year-old was believed to enjoy the confidence of the late Khamenei after a long career in the military, media and legislature.
In June 2025, after Iran’s war with Israel and the US, he was appointed head of Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council — a position he had held nearly two decades earlier — coordinating defence strategies and overseeing nuclear policy.
He later became increasingly visible in the diplomatic arena, travelling to Gulf states such as Oman and Qatar as Tehran cautiously engaged in negotiations that were ultimately scuppered by the war.
Born in Najaf, Iraq in 1957 to a prominent Shia cleric who was close to the Islamic republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Larijani’s family has been influential within Iran’s political system for decades.
A veteran of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the Iran-Iraq war, Larijani later headed state broadcaster IRIB for a decade from 1994 before serving as parliamentary speaker from 2008 to 2020.
In 1996, he was appointed as Khamenei’s representative to the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC). He later became secretary of the SNSC and chief nuclear negotiator, leading talks with Britain, France, Germany and Russia between 2005 and 2007.
He ran in the 2005 presidential elections, losing to populist candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with whom he later had disagreements over nuclear diplomacy. Larijani was then disqualified from running for president in both 2021 and 2024.
Observers viewed his return as the head of the SNSC as reflecting his reputation for being a conservative capable of combining ideological commitment with pragmatism.
Larijani supported the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that unravelled three years later after Trump withdrew US support for the agreement.
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