DUBAI/Tel Aviv – Israel claimed on Tuesday to have killed Iran’s security chief, while a senior Iranian official said the new supreme leader had rejected de-escalation offers conveyed by intermediaries, demanding Israel and the U.S. first be “brought to their knees”.
The senior official, who asked not to be identified, said two intermediary countries had conveyed proposals to Iran’s Foreign Ministry for “reducing tensions or ceasefire with the United States”. The official did not give further details of the proposals or the intermediaries.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who had held his first foreign policy session since being named supreme leader, had responded that it was not “the right time for peace until the United States and Israel are brought to their knees, accept defeat, and pay compensation”, the official said.
He did not clarify whether Khamenei, who has not yet been pictured since being named last week to replace his slain father, had attended the meeting in person or remotely.
The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is now in its third week, with at least 2,000 people killed and no end in sight.
The Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed off and U.S. allies have rebuffed U.S. President Donald Trump’s calls for them to help to reopen the vital waterway, through which about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas flows.
Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday Israeli forces had killed Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani, widely seen as one of the most powerful figures in the country, as well as Gholamreza Soleimani who led the volunteer Basij militia, which plays a major role in domestic security.
A statement from the prime minister’s office said Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered “the elimination of senior officials of the Iranian regime”.
There was no immediate response from Tehran to Katz’s remarks. Iranian state media published a handwritten note by Larijani commemorating Iranian sailors killed in a U.S. attack whose funeral was expected on Tuesday.
Larijani would be the most senior figure assassinated since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was killed on the first day of Israeli-U.S. airstrikes on February 28.
