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

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 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 was 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.