Israel has said it has assassinated Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani who taunted Donald Trump on the streets of Tehran last Friday.
The Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Basij forces, have joined the late Ayatollah Khamenei in the ‘depths of hell’ following targeted overnight airstrikes.
The attack on Larijani comes four days after he marched alongside thousands of Iranians at a Quds Day rally in Tehran where he criticised Trump during a live interview.
Meanwhile an Iranian drone struck a major oil terminal in the UAE today resulting in the second fire in as many days after the complex was attacked on Monday.
Oil loading operations were temporarily suspended at Fujairah, which sits on the Gulf of Oman, yesterday after the facility was hit causing a fire to break out. Authorities in the UAE say another blaze has broken out today.
‘Civil defence teams from the emirate intervened immediately on site and are continuing their efforts to bring the situation under control,’ the authorities said in a statement on X.
Meanwhile details have emerged of a tanker attacked near Fujairah port yesterday. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said an unknown projectile caused minor structural damage with no injuries reported.
Follow the latest updates on the US-Israel war with Iran
Breaking:Israel says Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani has been killed in airstrike
Israel has declared Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani has been killed following an overnight airstrike.
The IDF confirmed targeting Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, in strikes which also eliminated Basij paramilitary force commander Gholamreza Soleimani.
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said: ‘Larijani and the Basij commander were eliminated overnight and joined the head of the annihilation program, Khamenei, and all the eliminated members of the axis of evil, in the depths of hell.’
It comes four days after he marched alongside thousands of Iranians at a Quds Day rally in Tehran where he criticised Trump during a live interview.
Larijani, the strongman head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, continued his threats with a stream of invective on X aimed at President Trump.
‘Trump says he is looking for a speedy victory. While starting a war is easy, it cannot be won with a few tweets. We will not relent until making you sorry for this grave miscalculation,’ he wrote.
Israel posts photo of moment Netanyahu ordered assassination of regime officials
Benjamin Netanyahu has been pictured on the phone in what has been described as the moment he ordered the assassinations into Ali Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani.
The Prime Minister of Israel’s X account posted an image of Netanyahu flanked by a military figure supposedly giving the order from his office.
Netanyahu is yet to comment on the deaths of the high-ranking regime officials but his defence minister Israel Katz has released a statement confirming their deaths.
Iran yet to comment on Larijani attack as handwritten note appears on his X page
Iran is yet to comment on Israel’s declaration that Ali Larijani has been killed in an overnight airstrike.
However, Iranian state media says a message from Iran’s top security chief Ali Larijani will be ‘published soon.’
A handwritten note said to have been penned by Larijani has now appeared on his X page. The message relates to the funeral of Iranian sailors killed in the US strike on the Iris Dena on March 4.
The note reads:
On the occasion of the funeral ceremony of the warriors of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy:
Their memory will always be in the hearts of the Iranian nation, and these martyrdoms will establish the foundation of the Islamic Republic Army in the structure of the armed forces for many years. I ask God Almighty to grant these dear martyrs the highest ranks.
Mojtaba Khamenei rejects US ceasefire calls, official claims
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has rejected proposals for reducing tensions or for a ceasefire with the United States, a senior official said.
The proposals were conveyed to Tehran by two intermediary countries which were not named.
Khamenei’s stance for revenge against the US and Israel is said to have been ‘very tough and serious’ in his first foreign policy session, the official said.
The official did not clarify whether the Khamenei attended in person following reports he was seriously injured in the airstrike which killed his 86-year-old father Ali Khamenei.
Basij forces crushed mass protests across Iran earlier this year
Since the war began on February 28, Israel has launched specific attacks targeting Iran’s leadership, killing 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other military commanders.
Killing Soleimani could further strain the command and control of the Basij, which would be crucial in putting down any uprising against the theocracy.
The Basij and other internal security forces have been a target of attack by both the Americans and the Israelis so far.
Known as the street enforcers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Basij were said to have spearheaded the ‘main repression operations’ following mass protests across Iran earlier this year.
Iran was rocked by unprecedented protests against the clerical establishment that peaked in January.
They were met with a crackdown in which, according to rights groups, thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands arrested.
Who was Gholamreza Soleimani? The chief who oversaw the brutal Basij forces
Gholamreza Soleimani operated as commander of the Basij unit for the past six years.
Known as the Revolutionary Guard’s street enforcers, the Basij, a volunteer militia, ‘led the main repression operations’ by authorities during recent mass protests in Iran, the Israeli army said.
Iran was rocked by unprecedented protests against the clerical establishment that peaked in January.
They were met with a crackdown in which, according to rights groups, thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands arrested.
The US Treasury lists Soleimani as having been born in 1965. He has been sanctioned by the US, the European Union and other nations over his role in helping suppress dissent for years through the Basij.
DAVID PATRIKARAKOS: How Iran learnt from the defeat of Saddam
by David Patrikarakos
Thick smoke coils across Iran’s horizon; the acrid stink of burning oil hangs over its cities. In the Strait of Hormuz, tankers burn and drones strike. Violence spreads like infection.
Operation Epic Fury is now into its third week, and its effects are global. According to US Central Command, by March 12 combined US and Israeli forces had struck around 6,000 targets in Iran since operations began – working out at around 460 strikes per day.
Iran’s leadership is decapitated; its control centres in disarray, its nuclear programme in ruins.
And yet, the Iranians fight on. How? Because they have spent twenty years preparing for this moment.
Their strategy is known as Decentralised Mosaic Defence (DMD), built around a single brutal principle: that the ‘body’ keeps fighting even if the ‘head’ is cut off – which is exactly what the Americans did when they killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war.
Read more here:
Iraq in talks with Iran for tankers to use Strait of Hormuz
Iraq’s oil minister has said talks are taking place with Iran to allow some of the country’s oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iraq is seeking to ease disruptions to crude exports following recent attacks on tankers in its own waters with separate plans underway to restore a disused pipeline that would allow oil to be pumped directly to Turkey’s Ceyhan port, Hayan Abdel-Ghani said.
Iraq will complete an inspection of a 100-km (62-mile) section of the pipeline within a week to enable direct exports from Kirkuk, he added.
The reopening of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which has been shut for more than a decade, would offer an alternative export route at a time when shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz is severely disrupted by the conflict in the Middle East.
One killed in UAE following drone and missile barrage
Falling debris from an intercepted missile killed one person in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
Authorities say the fatality was recorded in the Bani Yas area following the interception of a ballistic missile by air defences, the Abu Dhabi Media Office said on X.
The day before a Palestinian national was killed on the edge of the city when a missile hit his car.
It brings the death toll in the United Arab Emirates since the start of the Iran war to eight, with six civilians dead as well as two military personnel killed in a helicopter accident.
The oil-rich Gulf has borne the brunt of Iran’s attacks in response to US-Israeli strikes that sparked the Middle East war, with Tehran targeting US assets but also civilian infrastructure.
On the east coast of the country, the oil industrial zone of Fujairah was hit on Tuesday morning, sparking a fire but causing no injuries, local authorities said.
Israel claims to have killed high-ranking Iranian military chief
The IDF has claimed it has killed the high-ranking Iranian military chief Gholamreza Soleimani.
Soleimani is a senior Revolutinary Guards officer and commander of the paramilitary Basij forces.
Israel said his death marked a ‘serious blow’ to the regime’s security command.
In a statement, the Israeli Air Force said: ‘The Air Force, with precise intelligence guidance, carried out a targeted attack yesterday in the heart of Tehran and killed Gholam Reza Soleimani, commander of the Basij unit for the past six years.
‘The Basij forces are part of the armed forces of the Iranian terrorist regime, as part of the internal protests in Iran, and particularly in the recent period when they have intensified.
‘The Basij forces under Soleimani’s command led major repressive operations using severe violence, widespread arrests, and the use of force against civilian protesters.’
Tehran shaken by loud explosions as Israel launches new strikes
Loud explosions shook Tehran overnight following new Israeli strikes in the Iranian capital.
Blasts were heard in Tehran after a night of heavy bombardment mixed with thunder and rain.
It was not immediate clear what the targets were, but Israel’s army said earlier it had launched a wave of strikes ‘against Iranian terror regime infrastructure across Tehran’, as well as strikes in Lebanon.
Sources have since said the strikes have targeted Ali Larijani, Iran’s security chief. It is unclear whether he was killed in the overnight attack.
Oil prices spike more than 5% as fears grow over Strait of Hormuz
Oil prices surged more than 5% today as several countries pushed back against Donald Trump’s demand that they help secure the key Strait of Hormuz.
Investors are awaiting a slew of central bank decisions this week that analysts say could see a resumption of interest rate hikes aimed at offsetting a possible spike in inflation caused by the surge in crude prices.
Australia said today it had lifted borrowing costs because of ‘sharply higher fuel prices’.
Trump has called for allies in Europe and elsewhere to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively closed, saying at the weekend that securing the waterway ‘should have always been a team effort, and now it will be’.
But there was only a lukewarm response, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying the war started by US-Israeli strikes on Iran was ‘not a matter for NATO’, while Britain, Spain, Poland, Greece and Sweden all distanced themselves from the calls. Australia and Japan also opted not to join.