Israel zielt mit einem nächtlichen Luftangriff auf den iranischen Spitzenbeamten Ali Larijani

Israel targeted top Iranian official Ali Larijani in an airstrike in Iran overnight, according to Israeli officials.

It is unclear if Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, was killed or injured in the strike, the officials say.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir appears to confirm the details. During an assessment this morning, Zamir says that “significant elimination achievements were also recorded overnight, with the potential to impact the campaign’s achievements and the IDF’s missions” — in an apparent reference to the strike targeting Larijani.

Another one. The IDF confirms killing Basij leader Gholamreza Soleimani in a strike in Iran overnight. In addition, the strike also killed the deputy commander of the Basij and other top officials in the paramilitary force.

If you want to understand the strategy, do not think of the Iranian leadership as made out of conservatives and moderates.  That is not the right framing.

Instead, think of the leadership as ideological versus self-interested.  That is much closer to the reality on the ground , where the irgc is the biggest commercial enterprise in Iran.

In this framing, if you kill off the key ideologues, the remaining mercenaries will take over and play ball.  They might do a good job of masquerading as hardliners , but their actions will speak differently.

Because the Israelis and Americans have so thoroughly penetrated Iranian government , they know who the mercenaries are, and are maneuvering to put them in place while eliminating their road blocks.