Iran security chief ‘killed’: what does it mean for war? - The Latest

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0:46There's actually an argument to say that his death is even more significant than that of Khamenei because he really was this kind of central figure who was doing a lot of the work behind the scenes. The Israeli defence minister now confirms that he runs top security official Ali Larijani has been killed in an overnight strike in Tehran. It does sort of suggest this idea that regime change and the kind of total destruction of the old guard of the Iranian leadership is something that is on Israel's mind. Israel claims it's killed Iran's national security chief in overnight strikes in what could be a devastating blow for the Iranian regime.

1:24From the Guardians today in Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hoff.

1:31I'm joined by Devika Bhatt, the Guardian's deputy head of international news. Thanks for joining us again, Devika. It's lovely to see you. So Israel is claiming that Iran's security chief, Ali Larijani, has been killed overnight in strikes. I mean, this is the most senior Iranian official to be killed since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei two weeks ago, isn't it? And he was a very significant figure in the Iranian regime. Yeah, that's right. Thank you for having me, Lucy. Yes, he was an incredibly senior figure, a sort of pivotal figure within the sort of Iranian political and security apparatus. And there's actually an argument to say that, you know, his death is even more significant than that of Khamenei, because he really was this kind of central figure who was doing a lot of the work behind the scenes, is what we sort of believe.

2:21Yeah, and playing a key role in the war operations, but also with close links to the IRGC. And as you say, Hamonet at the age of 86, you know, clearly had these deputies who were perhaps more powerful, Larajani being one of them. Israel, we should say, is claiming that he has died. What do we know about the operation to target him? Because there's some reporting in The Guardian that the operation was due to happen the night before last, but instead happened overnight last night. And Israel is saying it is without a doubt that he was killed in that strike. Yeah, so we know very little because it's still sort of quite a breaking story.

3:00But what we do know is that, as you say, Israel is saying it has done this. The Iranian regime has put out a handwritten letter that it says was written by Larijani. And this letter kind of commemorates the sailors who died a couple of weeks ago, the Iranian sailors whose funeral is meant to be today. but you know it has to be said that doesn't necessarily constitute proof of life and it's unlikely the Americans or Israelis would take it as proof of life because it could have been written at any point really. Yeah and notably it doesn't have a time or a date stamped so it's handwritten allegedly but I don't think does much to defy Israel's claim.

3:37You mentioned that we should perhaps consider his death as perhaps more materially damaging or more significant than that of Ali Khamenei. His son, Mujtaba Khamenei, was appointed as his successor last week. But there are also reports that Mujtaba Khamenei is seriously injured. Some reports that his leg has been very badly injured, that he might have lost a leg. Some reporting that he's in a coma. So again, this is another very significant person at a time when the Iranian regime has been very damaged by these strikes. Yeah, and there's been a lot of reporting in recent days that, you know, the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei's son to that post was definitely not straightforward.

4:18There was a bit of a power struggle behind the scenes in which Larajani himself is thought to have played a role. But it's true that Mojtaba hasn't been seen in public since this appointment was made last week. And there have been various reports, including from senior Iranians themselves. So one of our correspondents spoke to the ambassador, the Iranian ambassador in Cyprus, who said that he had been injured. You know, we know that the strike that took out his father, several members of his family were injured in that. And it seems completely plausible that he was amongst those. What we do know is that Larajani was, you know, for years beforehand, but prior to this, a really kind of senior figure and has been very close to Harmony over the years, one of his few kind of trusted people.

5:04And, you know, over the course of a kind of decades long career, he was in multiple kind posts across the political and security apparatus. So security chief now, but he was culture minister before he was Speaker of Parliament. And all of this has sort of meant that he's been able to kind of work out the way the various institutions within the Iranian regime work, how they can work together. And crucially, we understand, we sort of think that he played a key role in recent weeks in the sort of behind the scenes work that was being done to ensure the longevity of the regime, even if its current leadership was sort of taken out, as indeed it has been.

5:46There's a sort of strong suggestion that he was instrumental in that process and indeed would have had the career history to be able to do that. And now there's a kind of gap there because there were very few people, we think, who were as close to Hermione and were as trusted by him to have sort of had this insight. So, yeah, it leaves a bit of a vacuum. We've talked a few times on the podcast since War in Iran broke out about the level of Israeli intelligence penetration right to the heart of the Iranian regime. The fact that they were able to take out Ali Larijani, again, is proof of that. And that must be concerning for the Iranian regime as it tries to fill the vacuum that has been left by so many senior people being taken out in the last couple of weeks.

6:33We knew at the start of the Israeli-US operation that there was very good intelligence there. You know, they were able to take out Khomeini based on that. And we know that Israel has long had very good intelligence on Iran and what is happening inside Iran. And this certainly suggests that that is continuing even after several of the top leadership have gone and Iran must have strengthened its sort of security practices. It sort of does suggest there is still kind of quite deep intelligence there from in all likelihood. We don't know for certain, but in all likelihood from the Israeli perspective that is being drawn on for this.

7:13And so what is Israel trying to achieve with this type of strategy? I mean, they've taken out Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, a couple of weeks ago, a war that has proved much more complex than was perhaps anticipated, has continued to take out another senior leader. I mean, what do we think we can understand about its ambitions? Well, so there is this question which remains unresolved as to whether the US and Israel's motivations and goals are the same and at what point their divergence will become really kind of clear and what taking out loranjani has done is that it has removed someone who you know yes in many ways was a kind of hardliner very close to harmony um is thought to have been responsible in part for the really brutal crackdown on protesters um as security chief um but nonetheless was known as a sort of pragmatist.

8:06You know, he was involved in nuclear negotiations. We know in recent weeks, he was quite heavily involved in talks with Russia, went to met Putin, reportedly. He had this sort of experience in negotiation, which others within the Iranian establishment may not have had. And removing him means that there's one fewer person for the US and Israel to negotiate with. So it does sort of suggest this idea that regime change and the kind of total destruction of the old guard of the Iranian leadership is something that is on Israel's mind. So we know from our own reporting and other reporting out there that one of the key goals for Israel is to deal with this enriched uranium that we understand is sort of buried beneath the mountainside now after the strikes that Israel and the US conducted last year against Iran's nuclear facilities.

9:02And the removal of that or putting it in a position where Iran can't use it to make a nuclear bomb is a key concern for Israel. And so how they do that, it looks like, you know, force is the mechanism through which they want to do that now, be on the sort of war footing, use of force rather than any kind of negotiation, at least with the kind of current leadership. But as you say, those interests might diverge or we might see further divergence from the position of the White House in the coming days as we already are. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, Trump, we know that Trump wants this war not to be a long one.

9:38We know that it's having a massive effect on the economy in ways he probably didn't anticipate and perhaps wasn't sort of briefed on even because it seems to have come as a bit of a surprise to him. And so the longer this war goes on, the more likely that is to continue. And that cannot be in the US's interests. Well, Debika, thank you so much for your time. No worries. Thanks for having me. That's it for today. My huge thanks again to Devika Batt, the Deputy Head of International News at The Guardian. Keep up with all our breaking coverage of this story over at theguardian.com. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Latest, the new evening edition of Today in Focus.

10:18Today in Focus will be back in your feeds as usual tomorrow morning. The latest will be back tomorrow night. This episode was presented by me, Lucy Hoff. It was produced by Annie Levespa. The senior producer was Ryan Ramgobin. The lead producer was Zoe Hitch.

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