Israel kills Ali Larijani, removing key Iranian negotiator, ex-MI6 chief says

September 18, 2026 at 03:29 PM3 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

Former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers said in early September 2026 that Israel deliberately killed Ali Larijani, Iran's effective decision-maker after the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Sawers told the Financial Times that Larijani was targeted because he was among the few Iranian figures capable of reaching a deal both sides could accept. The assessment places Larijani's killing in a pattern of removing negotiators at moments of possible diplomacy, alongside the 1948 assassination of UN mediator Folke Bernadotte and the 2020 killing of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Key Facts

Sir John Sawers, former head of MI6, told the Financial Times in early September 2026 that Israel deliberately killed Ali Larijani.
Ali Larijani became Iran's effective decision-maker after the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the war's opening day.
Larijani had been Iran's nuclear negotiator two decades earlier and defended the 2015 nuclear deal as speaker of parliament.
UN mediator Folke Bernadotte was assassinated in Jerusalem in September 1948 by members of Lehi, whose leaders included future Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a leading figure in Iran's nuclear programme, was killed near Tehran in November 2020, weeks after Joe Biden's election as US president.

The Larijani Killing

Sir John Sawers, the former head of Britain's foreign intelligence service, told The Financial Times in early September 2026 that Israel had deliberately killed Ali Larijani. Sawers said Larijani was targeted not because he ran Iran's war effort, but because he was among the few Iranian figures capable of reaching a deal both sides could accept. Larijani had been Iran's nuclear negotiator two decades earlier and had defended the 2015 nuclear agreement as speaker of parliament. After the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the war's opening day, Larijani had become the country's effective decision-maker.

Pattern of Removing Negotiators

Sawers' assessment places Larijani's killing in a pattern in which Israel removes, at moments of possible negotiation, the very people through whom a war might have been ended. In September 1948, Count Folke Bernadotte, the United Nations mediator for Palestine, was assassinated in Jerusalem by members of Lehi, the Zionist underground whose leaders included the future Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Shamir. Bernadotte had been shuttling between the parties with truce and partition proposals, and his killers regarded any compromise as betrayal. In November 2020, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the leading figure in Iran's nuclear programme, was killed near Tehran in an operation widely attributed to Israel. The timing of Fakhrizadeh's killing, weeks after Joe Biden was elected US president having committed to reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement, led many to read it as an obstacle deliberately placed in the path of diplomacy.

Consequences of Assassination

Assassinating a designated negotiator opens a vacuum of moderation, and the successor to a killed negotiator is rarely more flexible than the person removed. The channel loses its author, and the hardening that follows is then read, on both sides, as proof that diplomacy was never possible in the first place. The tactic becomes self-fulfilling: it does not merely interrupt a negotiation; it manufactures the evidence that negotiation was futile.