• US counterterrorism director quits in protest, says Trump duped by ‘Israel lobby’ into perceiving Iran as ‘imminent threat’
• EU foreign policy chief urges US, Israel to stop war; says bloc in talks with Gulf govts
• Trump says he doesn’t need Nato, allies’ help after Hormuz snub • IRGC confirms Basij commander’s death
• Iran strikes targets in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem
• US embassy in Baghdad hit, attacks on UAE partly halt oil transport, lead to airspace closure
WASHINGTON / DUBAI / LONDON: Israel assassinated another key member of the Iranian leadership, even as the world seemed to be losing its appetite for the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tuesday, Iranian state media confirmed in the early hours of Wednesday.
After weeks of speculation around whether he was still alive, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on television to make the announcement, where he also vowed to hunt down and “neutralise” the new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also confirmed the death of Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij paramilitary force, in a US-Israeli air strike.
Larijani is the most senior Iranian figure to be targeted since former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated in an air strike on Feb 28, the first day of the war.
According to veteran BBC correspondent John Simpson, Larijani was “the kind of person you might want to negotiate a peace deal with”.
“Is it a good idea for Israel to take out people like him?”, he posted on X.
The two killings mark a fresh escalation in the war, which has become increasingly unpopular among the global community, with a host of traditional US allies refusing to join military operations against Iran, despite a plea from President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, the US president lashed out at “foolish” Nato allies, but said Washington needed no help after most states rebuffed his calls to join efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“I think Nato is making a very foolish mistake,” Trump told reporters as he hosted Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in the Oval Office.
“I’ve long said that I wonder whether or not Nato would ever be there for us. So this was a great test.” But Trump insisted that Washington was ready to go it alone.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration saw its first senior official quitting in protest over the war on Iran when Joseph Kent, director of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, submitted his resignation.
In his resignation letter to the president, Mr Kent said Iran posed no imminent threat and that the war was started due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.
Later, commenting on the development, Trump said Mr Kent was “weak on security”, adding: “It is a good thing that he is out.”
In his letter, Mr Kent said high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign to deceive President Trump into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat and that there was a clear path to a swift victory.
“This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women,” Mr Kent said.
“I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives,” he added.
EU seeks end to conflict
Like Mr Kent, the EU also appeared to oppose the war, and Its foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called for an end to the conflict, saying the bloc was in talks with Middle East governments to bring the war to a conclusion.
Ms Kallas said the door was not closed to European participation in efforts to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, but it would be most likely to come as part of a diplomatic solution.
“We have been consulting with regional countries like the Gulf countries, Jordan, Egypt, (about) whether we could also bring forward proposals for Iran, Israel and the US to get out of this situation so that everybody saves face.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar also pushed for a diplomatic solution in a meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri Moghaddam. Mr Dar stressed that dialogue and diplomacy remained the only viable path to resolving issues and achieving lasting peace and stability in the region.
De-escalation offer rejected
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official quoted by Reuters said the new supreme leader had rejected de-escalation offers conveyed by intermediaries, demanding Israel and the US first be “brought to their knees”.
The 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 US”.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who held his first foreign policy session since being named as the 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 Mr Khamenei had attended the meeting in person or remotely.
No let-up in attacks
Meanwhile, there was no let-up in attacks by both sides on Tuesday. In Israel, where Iranian missile attacks have killed 12 people, air raid sirens sounded throughout the day in the commercial hub Tel Aviv and surrounding cities as loud blasts of interceptions were heard as far away as Jerusalem.
Iran’s army said in a statement it had targeted cyber-technology centres in Israel with drones, as well as weapons manufacturing centres of Israeli arms manufacturer Rafael.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it was targeting “Iranian regime infrastructure” with a new wave of strikes across Tehran, as well as Hezbollah sites in Beirut. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel “had, in effect already won the war”, but gave no timeline for when the war might end in a press conference in Jerusalem.
Iran responded with wide-ranging attacks on its Gulf neighbours. Oil loading at the UAE port of Fujairah was at least partly halted on Tuesday after a third attack in four days caused a fire at the export terminal.
The UAE also briefly closed its airspace on Tuesday in response to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran, a second straight day of aviation disruption after a drone caused a fire near Dubai airport.
The US embassy in Baghdad was also targeted by a drone and rocket attack, which sparked a fire on embassy grounds.
Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2026