Tehran confirms the assassination of Ali Larijani, its de-facto wartime ruler and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, in a statement from the Council published by Tasnim News Agency. Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed that Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani was “eliminated last night”. Iranian state media described him as a “martyr” who died in the “service front”. According to the Council’s statement, Larijani was killed alongside his son Morteza, his deputy for security Alireza Bayat, and a group of guards. The statement added: “These martyrdoms will make the nation and the community more determined to continue the path of those men of God.”
Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani was targeted in a series of “massive targeted strikes” by the IDF that also killed Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of the Basij paramilitary force, near Tehran on the night of March 16–17, 2026. He was last seen in public on the 13th of March, attending the Al Quds Day march in Tehran.
He was born on June 3, 1958, in Najaf, Iraq, to a wealthy family from Amol, Larijani belongs to a dynasty so influential that Time magazine described them in 2009 as the “Kennedys of Iran.”
Ali Larijani is a towering figure in Iran’s political and intellectual history. For decades, he was known as the calm, pragmatic face of the Iranian establishment—a man who wrote books on the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant and negotiated nuclear deals with the West.
His career spans from serving on the front lines with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to becoming one of the country’s most influential politicians. He was the speaker of parliament from 2008 to 2020 and has served twice as the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council—first from 2005 to 2007, and again starting in August 2025. He was also a trusted advisor to late Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Turkiye has condemned Israel’s assassination of Ali Larijani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stated that Israel’s political assassinations—especially those targeting Iranian state officials and political figures—are actions that fall outside the normal laws of war and are truly illegal activities. He called on the global community to put an end this unjustified assassination as soon as possible.