Israel’s assassination of Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, is unlikely to pose a significant challenge to Tehran, Iranian foreign policy analyst Mohammad Khatibi told AnewZ’s Context on Tuesday (17 March).

In remarks to Context host, Orkhan Amashov, made prior to Iran confirming Larijani’s death, Khatibi said Tehran was responding to reports of the security chief’s assassination with “calm”, adding that he would be replaced by a younger successor.

“They say that this killing will not change anything, like it didn't change anything after the assassination of the [Supreme] Leader. 

“As we saw at the beginning of this crisis, the United States and Israel assassinated Iran's leader and after just two hours, Iran started the retaliation against United States and Israeli interests in the region,” he said. 

Despite entreaties from opponents abroad to protest against the Iranian government, the reality on the ground appeared to suggest momentum was shifting in the opposite direction, Khatibi added.

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“Right now people are across the country protesting and urging more retaliation [...] People are in [the] streets and they are trying to send a clear message to the opposition groups outside of the country that the people are the only ones who can decide the future of the country, not the United States and not Israel,” he said.

On Wednesday, a day after Larijani’s assassination, Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, said Tehran’s Intelligence Minister, Esmail Khatib, had been killed overnight. Iran has yet to comment.

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