On the 19th day of an ongoing war between the United States, Israel and Iran, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has firmly stated that the systematic targeting and killing of Iran’s senior leadership will not destabilise the country’s political system.
Speaking in an interview with Al Jazeera broadcast after Tehran confirmed the killing of Ali Larijani, the powerful secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Counci, Araghchi insisted that Washington and Tel Aviv had yet to realise that the Islamic Republic does not rely on any single individual to function. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, described the killings of Larijani and Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani as part of a deliberate effort to eliminate the regime’s main figures.
Meanwhile, in a significant development on the American side, Joe Kent, the head of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, became the first senior Trump administration official to resign over the war, stating that Iran posed no imminent threat to the United States and that Washington had started the conflict. The war, now in its third week, has killed at least 1,444 people in Iran, at least 15 in Israel, 13 US soldiers and 20 in Gulf states, drawing global condemnation and deepening fears of a wider regional conflagration.
Even the Supreme Leader Was Martyred
Araghchi told Al Jazeera that Iran’s governance rests on well-established political, economic and social institutions, not on individuals. “The presence or absence of a single individual does not affect this structure,” he said. Pointing to the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the very first day of the US-Israeli strikes on 28 February, along with his daughter, son-in-law and grandson, Araghchi noted that despite the immense national loss, the system had continued to function and immediately produced a replacement.
On 8 March, Mojtaba Khamenei was elected the new supreme leader, with Iran’s top figures including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, pledging their allegiance to him. On accountability, Araghchi was unequivocal. “This war is not our war. We did not start it. The United States started it and is responsible for all the consequences of this war, human and financial whether for Iran, for the region, or for the entire world,” he said. He further warned that Iran would end the war only when certain it would not be repeated, demanding a “decisive and final end” and reparations for war damages. In Washington, President Trump reacted to the killing of Larijani in the Oval Office, nodding to the killings and noting that Soleimani was “responsible for the killing of 32,000 protesters.”
A War Born From Broken Diplomacy
The US and Israeli strikes began on 28 February 2026, with stated aims of inducing regime change and dismantling Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme. The timing was jarring: Araghchi revealed that just 48 hours before the strikes, he had personally offered to Trump’s negotiators to dilute Iran’s stockpile of 60% enriched uranium, a deal that had also been presented to Vice President Vance through Omani mediators.
The Omani foreign minister had described significant progress in the talks, with Iran willing to make concessions, but President Trump said he was “not thrilled” with the proceedings before the military operation commenced. The humanitarian toll has been staggering.
A primary school adjacent to an IRGC complex was struck on the first day, reportedly killing nearly 170 children, while human rights organisations estimate the total civilian death toll exceeds 2,400. US forces have struck more than 5,000 targets in Iran since the conflict began.
The war has also spilt far beyond Iran’s borders: Israel’s assault in Lebanon has killed 886 people and displaced more than one million. Iran has threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil and trading route, and has already targeted Gulf states hosting US military assets a move analysts warn could further isolate Tehran diplomatically. Internationally, European Union countries have largely refused Trump’s call for help to open the Strait of Hormuz, with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas saying there was “no appetite” among member states to join the military operation.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
What is unfolding in Iran is not merely a geopolitical confrontation, it is a human catastrophe being waged, in part, on the argument that removing individuals at the top can bring down an entire system. History and now Foreign Minister Araghchi himself, tells us that this logic is deeply flawed.
Institutions, ideologies and grievances do not dissolve with the elimination of their figureheads; they harden. More troubling still is the revelation that a diplomatic agreement was within reach just 48 hours before the bombs fell a deal that could have avoided the deaths of thousands of civilians, including children in a school.
The resignation of a senior US official who called his own government’s actions unjustified should give us all pause. Wars of this scale are never “short-term excursions,” as President Trump reportedly mused they leave scars on generations.
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Iran’s FM Abbas Araghchi is pushing back after the killings of top officials Ali Larijani and Basij commander Gholamreza Soleimani, saying the Islamic Republic is built to withstand shocks and no single figure can destabilise the system.
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 18, 2026
Full interview ➡️ https://t.co/YnwMAQZUhP pic.twitter.com/gKJjAXlvfG
