- Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said killings of officials won't weaken Tehran's government
- Governance in Iran relies on institutions, not individuals, said Araghchi to Al Jazeera
- Israeli strikes killed top officials including Ali Larijani and Basij militia head
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said that the killing of top Iranian officials, including security chief Ali Larijani, will not be a setback for the government in Tehran. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Araghchi explained that governance in Iran is based on institutions and not on individuals and insisted the US and Israeli attacks on top leaders won't shake the system, which continued functioning despite the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The statement came after Larijani, a top Iranian security official and a conservative force within Iran's theocracy, along with his son, Morteza, and one of his aides, was killed in an Israeli strike, Iranian authorities confirmed on Tuesday. Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij militia, was also killed in another Israeli attack.
What Abbas Araghchi Said
"I do not know why the Americans and the Israelis still have not understood this point: The Islamic Republic of Iran has a strong political structure with established political, economic, and social institutions," Araghchi said while talking to Al Jazeera.
"The presence or absence of a single individual does not affect this structure," he added.
"Of course, individuals are influential, and each person plays their role – some better, some worse, some less – but what matters is that the political system in Iran is a very solid structure."
The minister pointed to the assassination of Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of US-Israeli strikes on 28 February, noting that despite the huge national loss, “the system continued”.
“We have not had anyone more important than the leader himself, and even the leader was martyred, yet the system continued its work and immediately provided a replacement,” he
“If anyone else is martyred, it will be the same...If the foreign minister were ever to be martyred, there would ultimately be someone else to take the position.”
What Abbas Araghchi's Remarks Mean
The Iranian military is structured on the 'Mosaic Defence' doctrine, created years ago by Iranian strategist Mohammad Ali Jafari. In an earlier statement, Araghchi has described Iran's defence strategy as a "two-decade study" into "defeats of the US military to our immediate east and west".
"We've incorporated lessons accordingly. Bombings in our capital have no impact on our ability to conduct war. Decentralised Mosaic Defence enables us to decide when-and how-war will end," he has said days after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in US-Israeli strikes.
What Is Iran's Mosaic Defence?
Mosaic Defence is an Iranian military concept to organise the state's defensive structure into multiple regional and semi-independent layers instead of concentrating power in a single command chain that can be paralysed by a decapitation strike.
Under this model, the IRGC, the Basij, regular army units, missile forces, naval assets, and local command structures form parts of a distributed system. If one part is hit, others keep functioning, and if senior leaders are killed, the chain does not collapse.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is organised into 31 provincial commands, and each provincial command functions as a self-contained military unit with its own weapons, intelligence, and command systems. If communications are severed from top leadership, the doctrine provides local units the authority and capacity to act on their own.
Dr Michael Connall, an expert on Iranian military culture, said the restructuring was designed to "make any attempt at degrading Iran's defence exceedingly difficult".
