Name: Israel says Iran's security chief Ali Larijani has been killed in strike | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-03-17T16:30:42.000Z
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that is that Israel's Defense Minister, Israel Katz, says the secretary of Iran's National Security Council, Ali Larijani, was assassinated in overnight strikes on Iran.

Ali Larijani was a former nuclear negotiator for Iran and a close ally of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of this war.

Israeli media are reporting that Larry Johnny was attacked with his son in a hideout apartment.

Straight now to our Middle east correspondent Yolande Nell in Jerusalem.

What more have we been hearing from Israel?

Katz YOLAND so this was just a short statement that Israel Cats put out, basically confirming that Ali Larajani had been eliminated and saying that he and the Israeli prime minister had instructed the Israeli military to, in his words, continue hunting down the Iranian leadership.

And already we had had it said by an Iranian military official that Ali La Rajani had been targeted overnight.

He was the secretary of the National Security Council, so a very powerful figure in Iran and also somebody who was internationally well known.

So if this is completely confirmed, it would be the most senior figure in Iran to confirm to have been killed since the Supreme Leader on the first day of the war.

He is somebody who was a close ally of the late supreme Leader and is believed to have become more powerful in the past two weeks, of course, in the late supreme leader's absence, with his son chosen to take over from him.

He was seen in public justice last Friday at the Quds Day rallies that were taking place in Tehran, going around talking to people in the crowd, supporters of the regime.

He was somebody who had been a negotiator on the nuclear issues for Iran.

So he was well known on the international stage for really that reason.

And Iranian state media had interestingly said that they were going to publish a message from Ali La Rajani, but

all that has come out on the state news agency is a handwritten note from him about the funeral of some Iranian naval soldiers.

So we certainly haven't had any confirmation coming from that direction that he is still alive.

We've also been hearing, haven't we, from the Israelis, the Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, saying that Israel will continue hunting down Iran's leaders.

That's been something we've heard before as well, isn't it, Yolande Indeed.

And it's also been announced today by the Israeli military that they have killed the commander of the besieged paramilitary force, part of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Colum Reza Soleimani.

It's been said that he was attacked while in a tent that he was using with other commanders of that force, which was very prominent recently putting down the protests in Iran, and

that they have been using that sort of temporary base because of the destruction by Israel and the US of their other bases in Tehran and around the country.

Yolande, thank you very much indeed for that.

Yolande Nell there, who is bringing us the very latest from Jerusalem.

Well, let's just take you now to speak to Ali Viez.

Ali Vaez is from International Crisis Group.

Ali, can I just ask you first of all to give me an update, if you can, on what more we know about Ali Lara?

Johnny, how significant is this if he has indeed been assassinated?

It is a very significant development, Maryam, because he was basically running the country under the current circumstances.

He was a former speaker of Parliament, former national security adviser, and

was returned to this position as a national security Advisor after the 12 day war last year.

He comes from a clerical family and has deep connections to the Revolutionary Guards and was indeed running the war effort along with Mohammad Bagar Khali Baf, the speaker of the parliament.

So if indeed he has been eliminated, it's another major setback for the Iranian leadership.

But it doesn't mean that it would create a political vacuum.

I think Ghaliba will probably gain more power.

And the more Israel continues to shave off the top layer of Iranian leadership, the more likely it is that these experienced, more pragmatic people will be replaced by more hot headed radical Revolutionary Guards commanders.

So you don't think this is necessarily a victory for Israel and the US in terms of moving the regime away from power?

Not necessarily, because at the end of the day, what keeps the regime in power at home is the repressive apparatus of the Revolutionary Guards, which seems to remain fully in control of the internal sphere.

And they have literally several hundred thousand if not millions of men under arms, whereas the Iranian people are unarmed and unorganized.

So there is definitely a imbalance in terms of monopoly of force inside the country.

And what gets basically the system to stay on its feet and continue punching back is again the Revolutionary Guards leadership.

And there are several layers of succession that were put in place for every commander.

And so the Iranian system is not just deeply entrenched, it's also deeply benched.

Is it so deeply entrenched that this type of warfare will find it impossible to make any changes within the regime because that's what a lot of analysts have been telling me.

They've been telling me 47 years of entrenchment means that you don't just destroy this regime from the sky in this way.

Without boots on the ground, it's very hard to imagine how you can loosen the grip of a regime like this on power.

This is why in other cases in Iraq, there were American boots on the ground.

In Afghanistan or in Libya or in Syria, at the end of the day, you needed to have a mixture of indigenous and foreign boots on the ground.

In the case of Iran, I think it's quite similar to the conclusions that President Trump came to in Venezuela, that he understood that the regime is really entrenched and hard to remove at a low cost.

And so he decided to make a deal with some elements of the system.

Now, elimination of people like Larijani would make any kind of settlement in the future after this war is over that much more difficult because you're left with people who don't have that kind of long experience in statecraft and are probably much more radicalized than their predecessors.

Let's talk now a little bit about the US And Israel and the way in which they have conducted this war.

We heard from President Trump, didn't we, Ali, saying, look, I didn't know that the Iranians would widen this war into a regional conflict.

I didn't know, he said a couple of times when asked.

But the truth is, isn't it, Ali, that Iran was very clear that this is what they would do if attacked again by the U.S.

Look, the former Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei had openly said that any attack on Iran would result in a regional war.

The Iranians had conducted drills on how to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Even we know General Kaine had told the President that this is the likeliest scenario that would happen.

Former American officials who were fired in this administration because, not because of their expertise, but

because of their lack of loyalty or perceived loyalty to this administration, had written about this publicly.

Everybody, all the GOLF leaders had warned the president that this is the likely outcome.

So I don't think it was really lack of knowledge or comprehension, but

this honestly hubris and belief in the fact that with the US Military might, the president would be able to always get what he wants at a low cost in a kind of high impact, highly impressive outcomes that nobody expects because nobody has dared to do the things that could be risky.

And Ali, as we watch the live scene in Beirut, another explosion caused by Israeli attacks.

I want to focus a little bit, I guess on what Israel's intentions are here.

Because as we see here from these live pictures, Israel is fighting this war on two fronts against Iran backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, but

also inside Iran as well, targeting those leaders, targeting what it says is military infrastructure.

Do the end desires of Israel and the US in terms of what they want from this war, do they align, do you think?

I'm not sure from what we see, even the assassination of Larry Johnny, whether it's successful or not.

But also all the other key political decapitations that have happened in Iran have been done by Israel, mostly not by the US and you see that Israel is going basically after any state institution with a flag on it which indicates that Israel is after dismantling the Iranian state.

Whereas you know, President Trump has in the past talked about his reluctance to do regime change in that part of the world.

He's talked about possibility of regime transformation, Venezuela model.

He doesn't seem to be really that interested going for some sort of a fundamental risky change.

But as for Israel, I think any outcome in which Iran is neutralized as a regional adversary is fine.

If Iran descends into civil strife, if this regime is replaced by a weaker regime that is unable to project power beyond Iran's borders, if magically Iran goes back to pre1979 status quo, anti whatever comes is fine for Israel.

Whereas I think the President simply wanted to get some sort of a deal with Iran and pretend that he has resolved the problem that has remained so elusive for so many administration over so many years.

Ali, let me ask you, I mean you're the Iran Project Director at Crisis Group.

You've been looking into Iran obviously for so many years.

I wonder if you can give me a final assessment of where we are and what you think about that.

Look, Mariam, I don't think regime change is possible through the sole use of air power and without a viable organized alternative inside the country.

So this is a regime that is going to fight to the last drop of blood and is going to leave behind a scorched country and a scorched region.

And the United States does not have the patience, the discipline, the strategy to be able to build this region back better.

So the longer this war goes on, the higher the risks and the costs for everyone.

I think time has come for a ceasefire, but that is not going to create a stable situation.

We then have to figure out some sort of a soft landing, which would require patient diplomacy in order to not just address the problems with Iran.

Obviously, the Gulf countries now have a long list of grievances as well, but

also to try to put the Iranian people in a better position to be able to determine their own future without bringing down the entire house on their head.

Ali Viez, Iran project director and senior adviser at International Crisis Group, thank you so much for joining us.

It's been really important to get your analysis today, given the breaking news.