Iran Downplays Impact of Larijani’s Killing on Leadership Stability

Iran’s foreign minister said the killing of Ali Larijani will not destabilize the country’s leadership or governing system.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday that the assassination of Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, would not shake the leadership or the system that, he said, the United States and Israel aim to dismantle.

He spoke in an interview with Al Jazeera that aired after Iranian authorities confirmed Larijani’s death. Araghchi said Washington and Jerusalem have failed to grasp that the government does not depend on a single figure. He also said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on Feb. 28 during the initial wave of U.S.-Israeli strikes, and argued that state institutions continued to function.

We have not had anyone more important than the leader himself, and even the leader was martyred, yet the system continued its work and immediately provided a replacement.

Larijani, 67, held several senior posts over decades, including serving as parliament speaker from 2008 to 2020, secretary of the National Security Council, and a senior diplomat liaising between the Supreme Leadership, Iran’s security apparatus and regional allies.

Separate development

Iranian state media confirmed Tuesday that Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij paramilitary forces within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was also killed in what officials described as an attack by the:

American-Zionist enemy