IRAN TO HOLD FUNERAL FOR SLAIN SECURITY CHIEF, VOWS RETALIATION
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By: Muftau Fatimo
Iran is set to hold a funeral on Wednesday for its slain security chief Ali Larijani, as the country vowed revenge and launched a wave of missiles at Israel following the airstrike that killed the influential figure.
Several Iranian missiles struck near Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, killing two people. At the same time, Gulf countries intercepted rockets and drones reportedly heading toward targets that included United States military bases in the region.
In Lebanon, which has been drawn into the Middle East conflict through the Iran-backed Hezbollah, Israel carried out a new wave of deadly strikes, including in central Beirut, where an Agence France-Presse live broadcast showed plumes of smoke rising from one of the targeted locations.
Iran’s Fars News Agency and Tasnim News Agency reported that funerals for Ali Larijani and another senior figure killed by Israel, Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij paramilitary force, will take place in Tehran starting at 1030 GMT.
Their deaths were announced on Tuesday.
Larijani is the most prominent figure of the Islamic Republic killed since Israel and the United States launched their attacks on Iran on February 28, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and igniting a war across the Middle East.
The slain ayatollah’s funeral was due to be held days after he was killed, but that was later postponed indefinitely.
“Iran’s response to the killing of the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council will be firm and consequential,” Iranian army chief Amir Hatami said in a statement.
‘Only Just Begun’
Beyond launching missiles and drones toward Israel and Gulf countries, Iran has also attempted to put pressure on the global economy by pushing oil prices higher and nearly shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for crude shipments.
With oil prices hovering close to $100 per barrel, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on Wednesday that the worldwide impact of the conflict “has only just begun and will affect everyone.”
In a bid to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s crude passes, the United States military said it deployed some of its most powerful bombs to strike nearby missile installations.
The United States dropped several 5,000-pound (2,250-kg) bombs — each estimated to cost around $288,000 — on fortified Iranian missile sites along the coast that were considered a threat to global shipping, according to United States Central Command.
Earlier on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump criticized American allies for keeping their distance from the conflict and not joining United States efforts to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
But Donald Trump also said the United States did not need assistance from its allies, writing on his Truth Social platform: “WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”
– ‘National awakening’ –
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which said Wednesday they launched missiles at central Israel as retaliation, warned in a statement that Larijani’s death would spur further attacks.
The “pure blood of this great martyr… will be a source of honour, power and national awakening against the front of global arrogance,” the powerful military force said in a statement.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan lashed out at Israel, condemning its “political assassinations” of Tehran’s leaders as “illegal activities outside the normal laws of war”.
But Israel vowed also to target the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he succeeded his father.
“We will track him down, find him, and neutralise him,” military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told reporters.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, once again called for the fall of the Islamic Republic of Iran, although both he and Donald Trump have stopped short of saying that regime change is their objective in the broader conflict.
Unlike Mojtaba Khamenei, the 68-year-old Ali Larijani had openly mingled with crowds during a pro-government rally in Tehran last week.
He had “effectively been the figure overseeing the regime’s survival, its regional policies and its defence strategy,” David Khalfa, co-founder of the Atlantic Middle East Forum, told Agence France-Presse.
– Deaths in Israel, Lebanon –
In Israel, medics said two people were killed after an Iranian missile barrage caused heavy damage to a building near the commercial hub of Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, authorities in Lebanon said Israel carried out a strike in central Beirut early Wednesday without warning, leaving at least six people dead, while the Israeli military said it was targeting areas in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon became involved in the conflict after the Iran-backed group Hezbollah launched rockets toward Israel following the ayatollah’s death.
Elsewhere, an Iranian projectile landed near Australia’s Middle East military headquarters in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
The Saudi Ministry of Defence also reported intercepting a ballistic missile near Prince Sultan Air Base, which hosts personnel from the United States military.
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