Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has maintained that the killing of Ali Larijani, the influential Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, will not undermine the “strong political structure” of the Islamic Republic.
In a televised interview with Al Jazeera following the official confirmation of the death on Wednesday, Araghchi argued that Western powers fail to grasp that Iran’s governance is not reliant on specific individuals.
He described the nation’s political, social, and economic institutions as a “very solid structure” that remains functional regardless of the loss of any single leader.
Larijani, 67, was killed during an Israeli air strike on Monday evening. A close associate of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, Larijani represents the highest-ranking official to be killed in Tehran since the conflict began 19 days ago.
Araghchi pointed to the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on 28 February – the first day of US-Israeli operations – as evidence of the system’s resilience. He noted that while the loss was immense, the state immediately appointed a replacement and continued its operations.
“If the foreign minister were ever to be martyred, there would ultimately be someone else to take the position,” he remarked.
The Iranian government also confirmed on Tuesday the death of Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleimani. As the head of the Basij paramilitary force within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for the last six years,
Soleimani had been a central figure in the country’s internal security and its military response to the ongoing war.
Commenting on the strategy of targeted killings, Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara characterised the actions as “terrorism” and “gangster” tactics that fall outside the traditional norms of warfare.
Bishara suggested that while the Iranian system is durable enough to prevent an immediate collapse, such persistent losses might eventually result in “qualitative changes” to its nature.
Reiterating Tehran’s position on the broader regional instability, Araghchi insisted that the conflict was forced upon them. He stated that the United States must be held accountable for the financial and human toll of a war it initiated. Furthermore, reports indicate that the specific targeting of Larijani may have been an attempt to “torpedo” any remaining prospects for diplomatic negotiations between the US and Iran.
