Leading Iranian politician Ali Larijani in the Al-Quds Day march in Tehran, March 13, 2026

US, Israel, and Iran: What Kind of War Is This Becoming?

EA-Times Radio VideoCast: War on Iran — Trump’s Lies, Betrayal, and Choice of Putin Over US Troops

UPDATES: US-Israel War, Day 18 — Trump Struggles Over Iran’s Closure of Strait of Hormuz

UPDATE 1444 GMT:

Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian has confirmed Israel’s targeted assassination of Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib.

Pezeshkian posted on social media about today’s killing and earlier assassinations by the Israelis, “The cowardly assassination of my dear colleagues Esmail Khatib, [head of the Supreme National Security Council] Ali Larijani, and [Defense Minister] Aziz Nasirzadeh, along with some of their family members and accompanying team, has left us heartbroken.”

UPDATE 1347 GMT:

Iranian State media claim US-Israeli strikes have hit the South Pars natural gas field, one of the largest in the world, off the coast of Bushehr Province in southern Iran.

Qatar said Israel’s targeting of an Iranian gas facility was “dangerous and irresponsible”.

A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said attacks on energy infrastructure pose a threat to global energy security, the region’s population, and the environment.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responded with evacuation warnings for several oil facilities across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar.

UPDATE 1141 GMT:

Two people have been killed and seven wounded, including a child with critical injuries, by an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in Deir ez-Zahrani in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar has condemned Israel’s attacks, including strikes on civil defense workers, as a violation of international law.

Al-Hajjar paid his condolences to the family of a civil defense worker killed in an Israeli airstrike on a car in Sidon in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.

UPDATE 1138 GMT:

Israel claims that it has killed Iran’s Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib and “dozens” of senior military figures in a targeted assassination.

The attack came hours before the funerals for political leader Ali Larijani and the commander of the Basij paramilitary force, Gholamreza Soleimani, also slain by the Israelis.

UPDATE 1118 GMT: The director of political programs for Hezbollah-affiliated TV station Al Manar was killed in the Israeli strikes on central Beirut this morning.

Mohammad Shari and his wife were slain in the Zuqaq al-Blat neighborhood.

UPDATE 1010 GMT:

The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is being withdrawn from the American fleet attacking Iran.

The $13 billion carrier is sailing for Crete for repairs after a fire that injured sailors and destroying 100 beds.

Questions have also been raised about the effect on morale and readiness of a nine-month stay at sea.

Almost 200 sailors were treated for smoke-related injuries when the fire broke out in the ship’s main laundry area and burned for hours.

The carrier, crewed by more than 4,000 sailors, has reportedly suffered significant problems with a clogged toilet system. The problem was identified in 2020, with $400,000 acid flushes required on a regular basis.

UPDATE 0958 GMT:

“People familiar with the matter” say Russia is expanding its intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Iran, providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology to help Tehran’s targeting of US forces.

The technology includes components of modified Shahed drones, improveing communication, navigation, and targeting. Russia is drawing on its experience using the Iran-made drones to attack Ukraine, offering tactical guidance on how many UAVs should be used in operations and the altitudes from which they should strike.

The sources include a “senior European intelligence officer”. They have previously reported Russia’s provision to Iran of the locations of US and Gulf State military forces.

Russia is now providing satellite imagery directly to Iran, said the European military intelligence officer and a Middle Eastern diplomat. Strikes using the information have included an early warning radar for a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in Jordan, and targets in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman.

The Trump Adminstration has played down and even dismissed the threat to US troops from Russia’s assistance to Iran. Donald Trump said last Friday that Vladimir Putin is justified because of past American assistance for Ukraine’s defense against Russian invasion.

UPDATE 0926 GMT:

At least 12 people have been killed and 41 injured in central Beirut by Israeli strikes this morning.

The Israelis struck the Zuqaq al-Blat and Bashoura neighborhoods, near the headquarters of Lebanon’s government, in two waves of airstrikes over eight hours. The Israeli military issued a warning on social media before only one of four attacks.

UPDATE 0720 GMT:

Tehran and its ally Russia claim a projectile struck the grounds of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in southern Iran.

The two countries did not say there was any release of nuclear material in Tuesday’s incident. There were no casualties in the reported strike, on an area adjacent to the metrology service building and close to the operating power unit.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran later said, “No financial, technical, or human damage occurred and no part of the plant was harmed.”

UPDATE 0713 GMT:

An Iranian missile has killed an elderly couple in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv.

Munitions hit multiple sites in central Israel. The national railway company said shrapnel disrupted train services.

Police spokesperson Dean Elsdunne said a residential building was hit by a cluster bomb in Ramat Gan. It collapsed the roof and killed the couple, both in their 70s, in their room.

Since the start of the US-Israel War on February 28, Iran’s retaliatory strikes have killed 14 people in Israel.

UPDATE 0705 GMT:

Two Israeli strikes on central Beirut have killed at least six people and wounded 24, says the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The Ministry said the toll is preliminary: “Human remains were also recovered from the site and their identities will be determined after DNA testing.”

Lebanese media reported that the initial strikes on central Beirut and its southern suburbs came without warning.

In a later strike, which was preceded by a warning, a 15-story building collapsed. Other attacks hit densely-populated areas and apartment buildings in residential districts such as Zuqaq al-Blat and Basta.

The Israel Defense Forces repeated their command for all civilians to evacuate southern Lebanon, moving north of the Zahrani River.

The warning was first issued lst Thursday.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Israel has assassinated a leading Iranian politician, Ali Larijani, and the commander of the Basij paramilitary force, Gholamreza Soleimani.

Pursued the collapse of Iran’s regime, Israel and the US killed the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and dozens of senior officials and commanders on February 28, the first day of their strikes. Tehran has replaced the slain, notably with Khamenei’s son Mojtaba succeeding his father.

But on Tuesday Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz proclaimed that Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, had been targeted in one of several houses he used in Tehran. He was with his son at the time.

The Prime Minister and I have instructed the IDF to continue hunting down the leadership of the regime of terror and oppression in Iran.

US President Trump spoke about the high rate of turnover of Iran’s leadership … we will update him that the high rate of turnover continues and is even increasing following the assassination of two of the most senior remaining leaders.

The regime held off from confirmation for hours, with Larijani’s Twitter account posting a handwritten message purportedly from him.

On Tuesday evening, its de facto English-language spokesman, Tehran University’s Seyed Mohammad Marandi, implicitly acknowledged the targeted assassinations.

Official confirmation followed of the killing of Soleimani, followed around an hour later with the announcement of Larijani’s demise from the Supreme National Security Council.

The pure souls of the martyrs embraced the purified soul of God’s righteous servant, Martyr Dr. Ali Larijani.

After a lifetime of struggle for the advancement of Iran and of the Islamic Revolution, he ultimately attained his long-held aspiration, answered the divine call, and honorably achieved the sweet grace of martyrdom in the trench of service.

The commander of the Iranian Army, Gen. Amir Hatami, threatened to launch a “decisive and regrettable” retaliation.

Larijani: At the Center of the Regime

Larijani, 67, was from one of Iran’s leading political families. One brother, Sadiq, was head of the judiciary. Another, Mohammad Javad, was a senior Government official. A cousin, Ahmad Tavakoli, was a prominent conservative MP.

He was regarded by many analysts as a pragmatist who maneuvered his way through the regime’s politics and in-fighting. A Revolutionary Guards commander during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, he was head of State broadcaster IRIB from 1994 to 2004.

A position on the Expediency Council, which resolves legislative disputes in Iran’s system, was followed by 12 years as Parliament Speaker from 2008 to 2020.

Larijani ran for President in 2005 but, in a better position to triumph in 2021, he was snubbed by the Supreme Leader’s office. His candidacy was blocked by the Guardian Council to pave the way for the selection of the hardliner Ebrahim Raisi.

After Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash in 2024, Larijani returned to Khamenei’s inner circle. He was named chair of the Supreme National Security Council in August 2025, two months after Israel’s 12-day war on Iran.

Last Friday, he was among the senior Iranian figures at the Al-Quds Day rally in Tehran, defying US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s declaration that the regime’s leaders were “hiding like rats”.

Soleimani, 61, was Commander of the Basij since July 2019. He rose from battalion commander during the Iraq-Iraq War through the ranks of the Revolutionary Guards.

He led the Basij amid the regime’s bloody suppression of three waves of nationwide protests: the “Aban 98” demonstrations in November 2019 over economic conditions; the “Woman, Life, Freedom” rallies in autumn 2022; and January’s protesters which were put down with the killing of several thousand demonstrators.