Breaking News: Israel Allegedly Assassinated Iranian Politician Ali Larijani Amid Rising Tensions

When U.S. and Israeli forces launched strikes resulting in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the conflict’s opening day, the regime’s core remained intact, largely due to the presence of one influential political figure.

This figure was Ali Larijani, Iran’s formidable national security chief, widely regarded as the shadow leader orchestrating the country’s activities, including its involvement in terrorism.

In the wake of the ayatollah’s reported demise, Larijani took to social media with a menacing declaration, vowing retribution.

“Today, we will unleash a power they have never before encountered,” he ominously proclaimed.

On Tuesday, Israel announced the successful execution of a covert operation that led to Larijani’s assassination, effectively removing a key player within the regime. Insiders suggest he had been poised to seize control amidst the ongoing Middle Eastern turmoil.

According to Israeli media, the killing of Larijani was initially scheduled for Sunday night, but was postponed at the last minute. 

It wasn’t until Monday afternoon that authorities received the vital intelligence that he would travel to one of his hideout apartments near Tehran alongside his son, as opposed to his normal residence. 

On Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s command, precise strikes were launched and the mission was soon complete, with one Israeli security source confidently telling Channel 12 in the aftermath: ‘There is no way he survived this attack.’

Israel released an image of Benjamin Netanyahu ordering the assassination of the Iranian figures

Israel claims to have assassinated top Iranian official Ali Larijani in an airstrike overnight

Following the announcement of Larijani’s death, the Israeli Prime Minister’s X account published a photograph of Netanyahu on the phone, ‘ordering the elimination of senior Iranian regime officials’.

‘The IDF announces that overnight, March 17, 2026, the Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence, and through the integration of unique operational capabilities, conducted a precise strike that eliminated Ali Larijani, the Secretary of Iranian Supreme National Security Council, who operated as the de facto leader of the Iranian terror regime,’ an IDF statement said.  

Iranian state media generated anticipation by suggesting the claims were false, and promised to publish a statement by Larijani, but all that emerged was a handwritten note commemorating Iranian ‘martyrs’, that was most likely penned before his assassination. 

As well as eliminating Larijani – the highest profile figure killed since Ali Khamenei -Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said a separate strike killed the Basij paramilitary force commander, Gholamreza Soleimani.

‘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 announced on Tuesday. 

‘The regime’s leaders are being killed and their capabilities are being neutralised,’ he said in a televised statement.

‘Our military is making every effort to continue to strike and neutralise Iran’s missile capabilities, as well as its strategic infrastructure,’ he added.

The twin deaths are evidence of the deep grip Israel has on the machinations of the Islamic regime’s top brass, with intelligence penetrating their every movement as the US dominates from the skies above.

Larijani’s death in particular will no doubt be a devastating blow to Iran, as a figure central to both its war machine and lethal suppression, who moved swiftly between the religious establishment and matters of foreign diplomacy. 

Only last week did he defiantly appear on Iranian state television, warning Donald Trump to ‘take care not to be eliminated’ before taunting the US President for his ‘grave miscalculation’.

Marching through the streets of Tehran, in an attempted display of bravado, the military overlord dismissed the Israeli-US attacks on the capital as being ‘out of desperation’.

‘These attacks are out of fear, out of desperation. One who is strong wouldn’t bomb demonstrations at all. It’s clear that it has failed,’ Larijani declared at the Quds Day march.

The 67-year-old was at the time one of the most powerful figures in the Iranian establishment – masterminding the country’s defence while distilling fear among the civilian population – and it’s unclear who, if anyone, has the ability to replace him. 

Larijani last week warned Donald Trump to ‘take care not to be eliminated’ before taunting the US President for his ‘grave miscalculation’

While Larijani filmed himself walking defiantly among crowds of people on Friday, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is yet to make a public appearance since his appointment.

Rumours are swirling that the hardline cleric was flown to Moscow for treatment of serious injuries following an airstrike, and may even be dead.

While his father was the country’s constitutional commander-in-chief and religious authority, it is largely agreed upon that true power lay at the hands of Larijani.

 A former parliamentary speaker and commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), he was responsible for the mass slaughter of civilian protestors earlier this year, with some reports indicating 30,000 citizens were killed in the bloodshed.

The 67-year-old was one of the first Iranian officials to demand that violence crush the dissenters calling for an end to clerical rule.

While he would never have succeeded Khamenei as supreme leader – such a role is reserved for a cleric and Khamenei left a shortlist of three – Larijani was hoping to consolidate power following the ayatollah’s death.

He was given responsibility for negotiations with the West in the weeks before the war started and on March 1 said he would be heading an interim committee for running the country.

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 IRGC during the Iran-Iraq war, Larijani later headed state broadcasting 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.  

Larijani 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.

‘Larijani is a true insider, a canny operator, familiar with how the system operates,’ Ali Vaez, the International Crisis Group’s project director for Iran, said before the Middle East war began.   

The IDF also confirmed it had assassinated the head of the IRGC Basij paramilitary militia, Soleimani, who ordered the slaughter of thousands of anti-government protesters in January.

He and his deputy, Seyyed Karishi, were killed in a makeshift tent area, which had been set up to make it harder to follow them as opposed to in a known headquarters.

The military also announced that it killed the IRGC’s Aerospace Force chief. 

‘In a precise strike in Tehran: The IDF eliminated the Commander of the Basij Unit,’ the Israeli military said.

‘Yesterday (Monday), the Israeli Air Force, acting on IDF intelligence, targeted and eliminated Gholamreza Soleimani, who operated as commander of the Basij unit for the past six years,’ it added.

The Basij, a volunteer force under Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, ‘led the main repression operations’ by the authorities during recent mass protests in Iran, the Israeli army said. 

The war on Iran is in its third week with at least 2,000 people dead and no end in sight, with Gulf states hosting US military bases and personnel, as well as Lebanon, being ​drawn into the conflict.

The Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed off, with European allies rebuffing Trump’s request for help to reopen the critical waterway through which about 20 per cent of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows, raising energy prices and fears of inflation.