Iran’s supreme national security council has verified the death of its head, Ali Larijani, after Israel announced it had eliminated him in an airstrike.
“The pure spirits of the martyrs have welcomed the sanctified soul of God’s faithful servant, Martyr Dr Ali Larijani,” the council declared on Tuesday night, noting that his son and his security detail perished alongside him.
“After a lifetime devoted to the progress of Iran and the Islamic Revolution, he finally realized his long‑cherished goal, answered the divine summons, and nobly attained the blessed honor of martyrdom on the front line of service,” the statement added.
Israel earlier reported that it had killed Larijani, a cornerstone of Iranian politics, in overnight raids. He is the highest‑ranking Iranian official to fall in the conflict since supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed on the war’s first day.
His loss removes a central figure from the regime’s political and security core at a time of acute turmoil and constitutes a severe setback.
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said a separate strike had taken out Basij paramilitary commander Gholamreza Soleimani and other senior Basij officers. Soleimani’s death was later confirmed by Iranian state media.
“Larijani and the Basij commander were removed overnight and now join the head of the annihilation programme, Khamenei, and all the eliminated members of the axis of evil, in the depths of hell,” Katz said on Tuesday.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump also praised Larijani’s alleged death, without naming him directly but referring to his alleged role in crushing recent mass protests. “Their leaders are gone,” Trump said of Iran’s clerical regime. “It’s an evil group. They have killed far more than 32,000 people. The man responsible for that was also killed yesterday.”
The twin killings demonstrate that Israel still possesses intelligence on the movements of Iran’s top officials in Tehran and can exploit that, together with the United States’ near‑total control of Iranian airspace, to strike at will.
Larijani had been spotted days earlier amid the packed streets of Tehran during the annual Quds Day rally. He was appointed secretary of the supreme national security council in August after the earlier U.S.–Israeli attacks on Iran in June 2025, and on Monday issued an appeal to Muslims worldwide, urging support for Iran’s struggle and challenging Gulf leaders to explain why they continue to permit U.S. bases on their soil to be used against Iran.
Before the war, Larijani also performed a key diplomatic function alongside foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, seeking to persuade Gulf states to block an attack. He staunchly defended Tehran’s war tactics, yet was viewed as a possible transitional figure for the conflict’s end. Israel remains doubtful about any internal transition within the regime.
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