The Islamic Republic’s Chief Enforcer Is Dead

By Noah Rothman

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

 

In a February 22 New York Times report on Iran’s preparations for the war that would break out less than a week later, Ali Larijani featured prominently.

 

The Islamic Republic’s “top national security official” has “effectively been running the country,” Times reporter Farnaz Fassihi wrote. Larijani managed the domestic crackdown on dissent that erupted in late December 2025, engineering the slaughter of tens of thousands of Iranians. He kept “a lid on dissent” domestically. Abroad, he liaised with some of Iran’s foremost allies in the undemocratic world, including top Chinese officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. Larijani had become the face of the regime in many ways — a prominent figure the regime featured in domestic propaganda and social media posts designed for foreign audiences. And when the war began, Larijani managed, as much as he could, Iran’s strategic and tactical operations.

 

Today, according to Israeli intelligence, Larijani is dead. He was killed in operations that successfully targeted him as well as Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s hated Basij militia — a fearsome paramilitary force that enforces the regime’s domestic moral and security priorities.

 

Larijani has served in a variety of roles over the years. He was once the head of Iran’s state broadcast agency, the Islamic Republic’s chief nuclear negotiator, and the one-time speaker of the Iranian parliament. According to dissident channels, Larijani was actively involved in the power struggles that erupted at the highest echelons of Iranian politics following Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s elimination. And, to the extent that the internal security services had any command-and-control nodes left, Larijani had his hand around them.

 

“This is a significant blow to the regime’s capabilities and a significant blow to their ability to operate their war machine against Israel and their own people,” said one Israeli official of Larijani, whom he called the “de facto leader” of the increasingly rudderless Islamic Republic. “And we will continue pushing to degrade the Iranian regime’s capabilities.”

 

Larijani’s elimination takes one more Iranian official who was committed to waging this war to the bitter end off the geostrategic chessboard. The U.S. and Israel are gradually peeling away the layers of the Iranian regime, likely in pursuit of someone within the Iranian hierarchy willing to entertain the kind of surrender the regime’s lifers could not countenance. Such a capitulation in the absence of a state terror and repression apparatus would present the rump Islamic Republic with an existential threat even more dangerous than the Americans and the Israelis: the Iranian people themselves. But that’s the regime’s problem.

 

The Islamic Republic is being effectively dismantled. Phase two of this campaign has seen the Americans and Israelis target the regime’s missile production facilities and the instruments of political repression. They are taking out Iran’s missile and drone production and storage facilities. They’re hitting Basij and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps positions. They’re working their way through Iran’s remaining air defense assets and missile bases. Iran’s ability to launch drones and missiles has declined by roughly 90 percent from the outset of hostilities, and as of last night, the Islamic Republic had not targeted a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz since March 12.

 

Larijani’s fate awaits anyone else who would dare succeed him or the many other Iranian military and political officials who perished in the fighting. There is more fighting to come, but the Iranians who value their lives and the security of their families will have to make some hard choices, and they’ll have to make them soon.