Name: Iran’s top natl. security official is dead, Israel says
Uploaded: 2026-03-17T16:43:35.000Z
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The Israeli Defense Minister now confirms that Iran's top security official Ali Larijani has been killed in an overnight strike in Tehran.

He was the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security council.

We've got CNN's Oren Lieberman joining us from Tel Aviv.

Ali Larijani was very important after the killing of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Now we've heard news and confirmation from the Israelis that he has been killed in that strike in Tehran.

How does this degrade Iran's decision makers and the ability to keep on making the decisions that we've been seeing and frankly keep the regime intact?

Ali Laurajani was considered one of the most key decision makers, if not the primary decision maker in Iran right now, crucially on security issues, but

He was also one of the most vocal and visible members of, of Iran's leadership.

And that put him not only right at the top of the decision making power in the country, but

also right at the top of Israel's target list.

We saw that when we learned a short time ago that Israel had targeted Ali Laura Johnny in a strike in Tehran on Monday night.

And now we see the statement from Defense Minister Israel Katz that Lara Johnny has been killed in that strike according to an Israeli assessment.

We haven't yet seen an announcement or confirmation from Iran at this point, but

we have already in the past, over the course of the first two and a half weeks of this war, seen Israel get ahead of the Iranians in announcing who they have successfully targeted and assassinated.

When it comes to Iran's leadership, it wasn't just Lara Johnny that was targeted overnight.

The Israeli military said they also targeted the head of Iran's Basij paramilitary forces a short time ago.

So Israel going after the top of the security leadership and, and that will continue.

Defense Minister Israel Katz, in announcing that Larjani had been killed, made clear that the effort to target Iran's leadership would not stop here.

In a short statement he said, the Prime Minister and I have instructed the IDF to continue hunting the leadership of the terror and repression regime in Iran.

So Katz, making it clear at this point that Israel's continued goal as it goes after the Iranian regime's military forces, its space forces, its ballistic missile program is to keep hunting down and killing the, the leadership of, of Iran's security forces and its political leadership, anybody who is a decision maker in Iran, it's quite clear at this point Israel considers a legitimate target that they will continue to go after here.

What we have seen also, even with the killing of the Ayatollah and other key leadership, you know, dismantling the leadership structure has been difficult because you're seeing people replaced really quickly.

Ali, Lara, Johnny was, you know, appeared on TV 24 hours after the assassination of the ayatollah.

What is the sense in terms of the amount of people that are available to replace the likes of Ali Larajani and other key decision makers in terms of, you know, making the, you know, the prospect of regime change possible in these circumstances?

That's a really good question, and Israel may have an assessment of that.

How far do you have to go down Iran's leadership ladder to seriously weaken the regime?

From the conversations we've had with Israeli military officials, the airstrikes alone, and

they are extensive, with thousands more to go, are not likely to topple the regime on its own.

And that's why you see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu trying to appeal to the people of Iran, effectively telling them, your time will come where it's up to you to overthrow the regime.

I don't think Israel believes that it can do that and topple Iran's leadership with airstrikes itself, no matter how far it goes down that list of leadership.

It's also very difficult to tell people to come out onto the streets when you're carrying out waves of strikes on a daily, and

But what's clear, at least at this point, is Israel will keep working its way down that leadership list in terms of targeted killings and assassinations.

And the moment Iran names a replacement for Lara Johnny, that person too will be on Israel's list.

With us now, seen in senior military analyst, retired Admiral James Tavritus.

Admiral, thank you so much for being with us.

The news that we are waking up to is Israel is claiming they have killed this man, Ali Lerajani, who is the Iranian security chief, maybe the most powerful man in Iran over the last several weeks, maybe even several months.

Also, they say they killed this man in charge of the Bezij paramilitary force.

This is on top, obviously, of already killing this man's father, the late Ayatollah Al Khamenei.

This is Moshtad Al Khamenei, now the supreme Leader.

So, Admiral, my question to you is, if they keep targeting Israel and effectively eliminating these leaders, what does that do?

The disability of the regime, particularly the absence now of Lerijani.

He's kind of the Cardinal Richelieu of this rotten theocracy.

He's been floating around, manipulating, leading internal dissent.

And now he ascended to the top with the killing of Khamenei and the ascension of Khamenei's son, who is probably gravely wounded.

If killing Khamenei was kind of a ten, I'd say this is an eight and a half.

And the character to the right is the leader of the Basjid militia, truly dreaded by the people.

So point one, this is a big deal, taking these two out.

Point two, to your question, somewhere in the headquarters of Mossad and probably over in the Kiria, which is the Pentagon of Israel, they have a big board and it's got pictures of all of these folks drilling down way below the four star, down to three star, two star, putting it in military contacts.

They're going to continue to relentlessly go after these people.

And point three, and finally, here's the good news.

At some point, you may get down to a layer in the rock formation where you can actually have a conversation.

And again, both of these guys key in the crackdown of the protests over the last several months there, maybe this will, if they are both, in fact gone, inspire some kind of new uprising on the streets there.

I want to shift gears here and ask about the US Troop movements.

We know that CENTCOM has approved a Marine Expeditionary Force to head toward the Middle East.

We believe they're somewhere over here and they will arrive sometime in the next week or so, maybe a little bit after that.

Admiral, what do you think these two 2500 Marines or so will be doing?

I think there are three options kind of floating around out there.

The first and most brooded about is the idea of seizing Carg Island.

Kharg island is the center of the Iranian oil gas production facility.

You know, we're all quite centered on the strait, but

the Persian Gulf is huge and a great deal of oil and gas moves.

And up there, Carg island, that is the heart of the Iranian.

And that, believe me, is U.S. marine Corps 101 seizing islands.

It's about third the size of Manhattan where you are I think the marine force coming in with complete air superiority and sea control around it would be sufficient to seize and potentially hold the island.

That puts at risk the entire Iranian economy.

That's basically because they are really nothing more than a gas station.

And then you turn to them and say, hmm, how would you like to open the Strait of Hormuz?

So I think that's the key mission for those troops.

You could also see them around the Strait of Hormuzzi knocking down land facilities that threaten the strait in an extremist.

You could see them going after the uranium, the enriched uranium.

I bet on Carg island or Admiral James Tavritus.

Thank you so much for helping us understand what these Marines could do when they get there as obviously the battle and focus is on the Strait of Hormuz in reopening that key waterway.

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Iran’s top natl. security official is dead, Israel says

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