Ali Larijani, Iran Security Chief, Is killed : Israel Defence Minister
Tehran : Ali Larijani, the man tasked with steering Iran’s security strategy and who has been Tehran’s face amid the conflict, was killed in Israeli strikes, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday. The development further cripples the Iranian leadership, which lost Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of strikes. With no news on the condition of Mojtaba, Larijani, 67, was virtually the No 2 in Iran, and was playing a vital role in running the battered country alongside the transitional council.
The development comes a day after Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, warned of a “conspiracy” by members of sex convict Jeffrey Epstein’s network of a 9/11-style incident to frame Iran. Larijani, who previously led nuclear negotiations with the US and was a close aide of Khamenei, was last seen in Tehran on March 13 during a rally. Present with him was Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Larijani becomes the most senior Iranian official to be killed after Ayatollah Khamenei, who was snuffed out on the first day of the conflict on February 28. Counted as a calm and pragmatic face of the Iranian regime, Larijani had warned the US and Israel of an “unforgettable lesson” after the conflict started. His last post was a message to the wider Muslim world in which he emphasised that Iran remained “steadfast” in its fight against the US and Israel.
Larijani was born on June 3, 1958, in Najaf, Iraq, to a wealthy and influential family that was described by Time magazine in 2009 as the “Kennedys of Iran”. While his father was a popular religious scholar, his brothers hold the most powerful positions in Iran. His political career flourished under Iran’s first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini. He started his career with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the 1980s. Between 1994 and 1997, he was part of the government, serving as the culture minister.
