Israel killed Iran’s second most powerful official, but Tehran says it still won’t be enough to break the country

Israel‘s killing of Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran‘s Supreme National Security Council, won’t be enough to break the country’s leadership, according to Iran’s foreign minister. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said this in an interview, shortly after Tehran confirmed Larijani’s death.

Larijani, 67, was a close confidant of the late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his successor, Mojtaba Khamenei. His death on Monday night marks the most senior leadership loss for Tehran since the start of the ongoing conflict 19 days ago.

According to Al Jazeera, Araghchi said that the United States and Israel are missing a key point about Iran’s government. He said Iran’s political system does not rely on any single individual, and that the Islamic Republic has a strong political structure with well-established political, economic, and social institutions.

Iran’s political structure is built to survive leadership losses

“The presence or absence of a single individual does not affect this structure,” Araghchi explained. He acknowledged that individuals are influential and everyone plays a role, but what matters most is the solid structure of Iran’s political system. Israel’s strikes have taken out several of Iran’s most powerful officials in a short period of time.

To support his point, Araghchi referenced the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the US-Israeli strikes on February 28. Despite that major loss, he noted, “the system continued.” He added that even after Khamenei’s death, “the system immediately provided a replacement and kept working.”

Araghchi said the same would happen if anyone else were killed. He gave a direct example: “If the foreign minister were ever to be martyred, there would ultimately be someone else to take the position.” The killing of Larijani is not the only recent high-profile loss for Iran. 

Iranian state media confirmed that Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Basij forces, was also killed in an “American-Zionist enemy” attack. Soleimani had led the country’s most powerful internal security force for the past six years.

Senior political analyst Marwan Bishara commented that Israel’s practice of assassinating political figures is not a normal part of warfare, calling it “gangster” and “terrorism.” He agreed that “the system in Iran is strong and the killing of one leader isn’t going to lead to the implosion of the system,” but noted that “quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes,” meaning repeated losses could still have an impact over time.

Reports also show that how far Israel went beyond US expectations with its strikes left American officials stunned. Araghchi also said the growing conflict in the region was not Tehran’s choice and placed full responsibility on the United States. 

“This war is not our war,” he stated, adding that the US started it and is therefore accountable for all human and financial consequences, for Iran, the region, and the world. He concluded: “The United States must be held accountable.”