Larijani Killing Part Of Effort To Give Iranians Chance To Remove Their Rulers: Netanyahu

Last Updated:March 17, 2026, 19:42 IST

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu called Iranian national security chief Ali Larijani the leader of "the gang of gangsters" that runs Iran while referring to the Revolutionary Guards

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said the killing of Iranian national security chief Ali Larijani, which has not been confirmed by Tehran, gives Iranians a chance to overthrow their rulers.

According to reports, Netanyahu called Larijani the leader of “the gang of gangsters" that runs Iran while referring to the Revolutionary Guards. He said Israel killed the powerful national security chief  as part of efforts to give Iranians a chance to remove their rulers.

“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, as reported by AFP.

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".

Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said Larijani was “eliminated last night". If confirmed, his death will be a huge blow to Iran’s ruling system more than two weeks into the war engulfing West Asia that has upended global markets and had consequences far beyond the region’s confines.

It comes less than three weeks after US-Israeli strikes on February 28 killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, triggering a regional war with global repercussions. It also comes weeks after a massive popular movement against Iran was crushed by authorities, with rights groups reporting thousands killed in the crackdown.

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