Iran:
Iran’s Army Chief Threatens Retaliation Following the Death of Security Chief Ali Larijani on Tuesday.
LATEST: Iran’s Army Chief Amir Hatami has threatened a strong response after security chief Ali Larijani was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
– At the appropriate time and place, Iran will deliver a decisive, deterrent and regrettable response to criminal America and the bloodthirsty Zionist regime,” stated Army Chief Hatami late Wednesday night.
He promised that Larijani and others killed, whom he referred to as “martyrs,” would be avenged.
New Attacks
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it has already fired missiles at central Israel “in revenge” for Larijani’s death, according to Iranian state TV, Reuters reports.
Israeli health authorities reported that a man and a woman were killed in Ramat Gan after suffering serious shrapnel wounds on Tuesday.
The death toll in Israel has now risen to at least 14 following attacks by the U.S. And Israel on Iran beginning February 28.
“Made a Martyr”
Both Larijani, and the chief of the Basij force Gholamreza Soleimani, were killed in an Israeli strike on Tehran Tuesday.
– Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, has been made a martyr,” Fars News Agency wrote on the platform X, translated from Persian.
The agency further reported that Larijani was killed along with his son, one of his deputies, and several bodyguards when American and Israeli warplanes attacked his daughter’s home in the Pardis area outside Tehran.
Largest Setback
If Ali Larijani is confirmed dead in the attacks, it would be the biggest setback since the death of Ali Khamenei,” said Mohammad Fazlhashemi, a professor and expert on political Islam, to TT.
– The deceased Khamenei had delegated parts of his power to him. Especially when it came to the war,” Fazlhashemi pointed out.
Larijani has been Iran’s top security chief since August of last year and has been one of Iran’s most influential leaders for many years.
He joined the Revolutionary Guard after the 1979 revolution and has since served as Minister of Culture, Secretary of the Security Council, responsible for nuclear negotiations, and Speaker of the National Assembly.
Important to the Regime
Professor Knut Vikør at the University of Bergen told NTB that Larijani was considered the most important person in the regime after Khamenei’s death because he was a link between reform-oriented and more uncompromising politicians.
– If he is dead, it could strengthen the military apparatus’s influence over the more political parts of the regime,” Vikør said earlier Tuesday.
He was close to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei until Khamenei’s death. Unlike other Iranian leaders with a religious background, Larijani had a secular background.
