Iran Rejects De-Escalation As Israel Kills Iranian Security Chief

DUBAI/JERUSALEM, March 17 (Reuters) – The government confirmed on Tuesday that Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani was killed by Israel; This figure was the highest-ranking figure targeted since the first day of the US-Israeli war. A senior Iranian official said that Iran’s new religious leader rejected offers to reduce tensions made by intermediary countries.

Larijani was widely seen as one of Iran’s most powerful figures and a confidant of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son and successor Mojtaba. The security chief was famous for establishing pragmatic relations with other factions in the ruling system and with foreign diplomats.

His death was confirmed by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, which Larijani chairs as secretary. Larijani’s son and his deputy, Alireza Bayat, were also killed in Israel’s attack on Monday night, the council said.

The targeted killings took place more than three weeks into the US-Israeli war against Iran, which has quickly escalated into a regional conflict that shows no signs of abating.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly condemned allied countries in recent days for their nonchalant response to requests for military assistance to restore the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

According to a senior Iranian official who requested anonymity, Iran’s new religious leader Mojtaba Khamenei rejected the proposals forwarded to the Iranian Foreign Ministry for “reducing tensions or a ceasefire with the USA”.

Attending his first foreign policy meeting since his appointment, Khamenei said “it is not the right time for peace until the United States and Israel bring them to their knees, admit defeat and pay compensation,” according to the official.

The official did not say whether the younger Khamenei, who has not yet been seen in photographs or on television since replacing his slain father last week, attended the meeting in person or remotely.

The Strait of Hormuz, the transit point for one-fifth of global oil trade, remains largely closed as Iran threatens to attack tankers bound for the United States and Israel. Oil prices rose.

The United States has offered varying justifications for joining Israel in attacking Iran and has struggled to explain the legal basis for starting a new war; The resignation of Joseph Kent, head of the US National Counterterrorism Center, on Tuesday also underlined this. In his resignation letter to Trump, Kent wrote that Iran “does not pose an imminent threat to our country.”

Trump said most US allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had told Trump they did not want to get involved in the conflict, calling their position “a very stupid mistake”.

“Having had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need’ or desire assistance from NATO Countries – WE NEVER HAVE!” Trump also wrote on social media, highlighting Japan, Australia and South Korea.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in an interview that no one was ready to risk the lives of their own people to protect the strait.

“We have to find diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a food crisis, a fertilizer crisis, an energy crisis,” Kallas said.

Oil prices rose nearly 3 percent on Tuesday as Iran renewed attacks on oil facilities in the United Arab Emirates, rising nearly 45 percent since the war began on Feb. 28, raising concerns of a new rise in global inflation. The World Food Program has said tens of millions of people will face acute hunger if the war continues until June.

Larijani is the most senior figure killed since the first day of the war, when Israel and the United States killed the religious leader, other members of his family and other senior officials.

Israel also killed another senior official, Gholamreza Soleimani, who led the volunteer Basij militia, which plays an important role in internal security.

In a video published on social media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a small card from his suit jacket pocket and said: “Today I deleted two names on the punch card, and you see how many more names I will add to this party.”

Air raid sirens sounded in Israel throughout the night on Tuesday in Tel Aviv, the country’s commercial center, and surrounding cities.

A man and a woman were killed in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, after suffering serious shrapnel injuries from an Iranian missile attack, the national ambulance service said, taking Israel’s war death toll to at least 14. It was not immediately clear whether it was a direct attack or whether the debris fell from missile interference.

Iran has repeatedly targeted densely populated Tel Aviv, which is home to important military and security facilities. It is not yet clear what Iran aimed for in the latest attack.

Following the attack, Iranian state television reported that Tehran targeted Tel Aviv with missiles carrying cluster munitions in retaliation for Larijani’s assassination. Cluster bombs disperse into many small explosives in the air and spread over a wide area, making them difficult to stop.

Iran has used cluster bombs against Israel many times in the war.

The latest attack underlined Iran’s capacity to carry out long-range strikes despite more than two weeks of US and Israeli bombardment.

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had previously said Israel had “actually already won the war” but gave no indication of when the conflict might end, saying only that the campaign would continue until its goals were achieved.

More than 900 people have died since Israel began attacks on Lebanon on March 2, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday. More than 3,000 people have been killed in the country, US-based Iranian human rights group HRANA said on Monday. Iran responded with wide-ranging attacks on its Gulf neighbors that host US military bases.

Gulf Arab countries, including the UAE, faced more than 2,000 missile and drone attacks on US diplomatic missions and military bases, as well as oil infrastructure, ports, airports, ships, residential and commercial buildings.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus, writing by Sharon Singleton, Charlie Devereux and Andy Sullivan; Editing by Timothy Heritage, Peter Graff, Alexander Smith, Cynthia Osterman and Michael Perry)