Iran attacked Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening with missiles fitted with cluster warheads in response to Israel’s killing of Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
The Iranian attack killed two people and sent missile shrapnel into a residential building, raising Israel’s death toll in the war to at least 14, compared with about 1,300 killed in Iran. Israel and the United States, meanwhile, struck several areas in Iran, killing seven people and wounding 56 others, most of them in attacks on residential areas in Dorud in Lorestan province.
Iranian state television reported an attack on part of the South Pars gas field and oil facilities in Asaluyeh in the south of the country.
As Iran awaited Larijani’s funeral, Israel announced the killing of Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib in a strike on Tehran on Tuesday evening.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, said the United States and Israel had failed to understand that the Islamic Republic has a solid political system that does not depend on a single person, and that replacements had been appointed quickly. He added in an interview with Al Jazeera that the deaths of senior officials would not disrupt governance or the functioning of the state.
Joseph Kent, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation on Tuesday in protest against the US-Israeli war on Iran, saying Tehran posed no imminent threat to the United States.
Kent, a former US special forces member, said in his resignation letter: “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
He also accused senior Israeli officials and parts of the US media of waging “a misinformation campaign” to “encourage a war with Iran.” The “lie” that there could be a swift victory was the “same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the disastrous Iraq war.” He added that, after losing his wife Shannon in Syria in 2019, he could not support sending another generation to fight in a war that did not serve the American people.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the claims in Kent’s resignation letter “false,” saying the suggestion that outside parties had influenced the decision to go to war was “insulting and laughable.”
US President Donald Trump also described Kent’s resignation as “a good thing,” saying at a White House press conference that he had “always thought Kent was very weak on security” and that his departure was the right decision.
These developments come as the US-Israeli war on Iran enters its 18th day with no sign of a resolution. As Washington and Tel Aviv continue bombing Iranian cities, Tehran is responding with missile attacks on Tel Aviv and on US interests in the Middle East, chiefly military bases in Gulf states.
Iran also still controls the Strait of Hormuz and is keeping it closed to shipping, amid US anger over allies’ refusal to join the war and force Tehran to reopen it, prolonging disruptions to energy supplies, pushing up prices worldwide, and increasing fears of a new wave of inflation.
The US-Israeli assault came while Washington and Tehran were holding talks that began on Feb. 6 under Omani mediation to explore the chances of reaching an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program, which the two allies are trying to end and prevent Tehran from completing.
The US-Iran escalation marks a second wave within a few months, after Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war in June. The United States took part by launching airstrikes on Iran, saying the aim was to deter Tehran from developing its nuclear program. Iran responded to those US strikes by firing missiles at the US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, before Trump announced the war had ended by agreement.
