Iran on Tuesday confirmed the death of Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, saying he was killed in an Israeli air strike alongside his son and bodyguards, in a major blow to one of the Islamic republic’s most influential power brokers.
Israeli forces also said they had killed Basij paramilitary commander Gholamreza Soleimani and carried out fresh strikes on more than 10 Basij positions across Tehran, targeting a force long accused by rights groups of helping suppress anti-government protests.
Larijani’s killing removes a veteran insider who had played an increasingly visible role during the current war, emerging as a key figure in Iran’s security decision-making and a prominent public face of the regime.
A former Revolutionary Guards member, ex-parliament speaker, and longtime nuclear negotiator, Larijani was widely seen as a pragmatic conservative trusted by the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and central to the state’s efforts to navigate both confrontation and diplomacy.
Reappointed in June 2025 to head the Supreme National Security Council, Larijani oversaw defense strategy and nuclear policy and later took on a more prominent diplomatic role in outreach to Gulf states. His influence grew further after Israeli and US strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the start of the war. He was also tied to the regime’s internal repression, having been sanctioned by Washington in January over the crackdown on anti-government protests in which rights groups say thousands were killed.
Reaction from Tehran was swift. Iran’s army chief Amir Hatami warned that the killing of Larijani would draw a “decisive and regrettable” response, while the Revolutionary Guards said they had launched missiles at central Israel “in revenge for the blood of martyr Dr. Ali Larijani and his companions.” The Supreme National Security Council hailed Larijani as a longtime servant of the Islamic republic who had attained martyrdom after a life of struggle for Iran and the revolution.
Israel’s military said it had launched new strikes targeting Basij positions embedded in public areas across Tehran, saying the attacks, together with the killing of Soleimani, had inflicted significant damage on the force’s capabilities. In recent days, Israel has also said it targeted checkpoints operated by the Basij around the capital.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Larijani’s killing formed part of a broader effort to dismantle what he called the regime’s “industry of death,” describing him as one of the leaders of the “gang of gangsters” running the Islamic republic. He said the Israeli and US campaign was aimed at removing what he called an existential threat to Israel and a nuclear threat to the wider world, and argued that by undermining the regime Israel was giving the Iranian people a “once-in-a-generation” chance to take their destiny into their own hands. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also said the world was safer after the killings of Larijani and Soleimani, AFP reported.