Israel confirmed on Wednesday that it had killed the Iranian Minister of Intelligence, Esmail Jatib, in a nighttime airstrike. This operation comes just a day after the Tehran regime launched a wave of airstrikes on Israeli territory, resulting in two fatalities, in what Iran described as a necessary revenge for the death of their security chief, Ali Larijani.
Larijani, considered the country's "strongman" with an influence reportedly surpassing that of the president himself, was the highest-ranking target achieved by Tel Aviv since the late Ali Jamenei. The Iranian regime has organized a massive public funeral for him, his son, and the Basij militia chief, Gholamreza Soleimani, along with 84 sailors who died in a recent attack by a U.S. submarine, aiming to project an image of unbreakable national unity against what they call "global arrogance."
Meanwhile, the war rhetoric continues to escalate; Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that they will continue to pursue the Iranian leadership, including the new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Jamenei, whom the military forces plan to "locate and neutralize." In response to this instability, there is speculation that President Masoud Pezeshkian could appoint Saeed Jalili, a hardline negotiator, as the new security chief.
The impact of this conflict is already global: the price of oil has exceeded one hundred dollars per barrel, and the director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, has resigned from his position. Faced with economic paralysis, Saudi Arabia has called for an emergency meeting of Arab ministers to coordinate stability actions. Additionally, NATO will reinforce defense in Turkey with additional Patriot systems from Germany, complementing those already deployed by Spain, after intercepting Iranian missiles in Turkish airspace.