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Netanyahu says Larijani killing gives Iranians chance to overthrow their rulers

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

17 March 2026 18:50 (UTC +04:00)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the killing of Tehran’s national security chief Ali Larijani was part of efforts to give Iranians a chance to remove their rulers, APA reports, citing Al Arabiya.

“This morning we eliminated Ali Larijani, the boss of the Revolutionary Guards, which is the gang of gangsters that actually runs Iran,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement.

He said the overthrow of the clerical authorities by Iranians “will not happen all at once, it will not happen easily. But if we persist in this – we will give them a chance to take their fate into their own hands.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday Israeli forces had killed 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 US attack whose funeral was expected on Tuesday.

Larijani would be the most senior figure assassinated since Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of Israeli-US airstrikes on February 28.