On February 28, the U.S. and Israel assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 86-year-old Supreme Chief of the Islamic Republic of Iran, together with various different leaders. On March 17, an Israeli air strike killed Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Nationwide Safety Council. The following day, Iran’s intelligence minister was killed. This isn’t the primary time Iran’s senior navy and political leaders getting killed.
In January 2020, the U.S. assassinated Qassem Soleimani, some of the distinguished commanders within the Revolutionary Guards. On June 13, 2025, Israel killed a bunch of Iranian navy leaders and nuclear scientists, on the primary day of the 12-day warfare. These killings are clear setbacks to Iran. However regardless of dropping its prime leaders and commanders, the Iranian state continues to perform whereas its navy refused to cease combating towards the U.S.-Israeli aggression. If Israel and the U.S. thought the decapitation strikes would result in a state collapse in Iran, it doesn’t appear to be working.
Iran has a protracted custom of statecraft, and the core tenets of Shia Islam has remained a defining issue of state behaviour for hundreds of years. For the reason that Safavid dynasty adopted Shia Islam because the official faith of the Persian empire, Iran (Persia) has been majority Shia. And because the 1979 Islamic revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi monarchy, the revolutionary state got here to relaxation on two pillars: political Shiism and nationalism. In Iran, martyrdom lies on the coronary heart of each. Shias venerate their martyrs, starting with Imam Ali. By assassinating Khamenei, Larijani and others, the U.S. and Israel have elevated them, within the eyes of their supporters, to a better realm of martyrdom.
The primary martyr
After Prophet Mohammed’s dying, his followers cut up over who ought to lead the ummah (the Muslim group). One faction backed Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, arguing that the management ought to stay inside his household. The opposite supported Abu Bakr, a detailed companion of the Prophet, who turned the primary Caliph. Ali later turned the fourth. Those that rallied behind Ali got here to be often known as Shias [Shi’at Ali], whereas the followers of the Rashidun Caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali) shaped the Sunni custom. Ali’s rule was marked by inner strife and he was assassinated, changing into the primary martyr in Shia reminiscence. His son Hassan, the second Shia Imam, briefly assumed the Caliphate however abdicated below threats from the Umayyads. Hussein, Ali’s youthful son, refused to pledge loyalty to the Umayyad ruler, Yazid. In 680, Hussein and 72 of his followers had been killed in Karbala, in as we speak’s Iraq, by the forces of Yazid. Hussein, the third Shia Imam, was beheaded and his head was taken to Damascus, the Umayyad seat of energy.
The Battle for Karbala holds monumental significance in each Shia religion and political Shiism. For believers, Hussein, the Imam who refused to compromise even at the price of his life, embodies the best superb of sacrifice. For political Shias, his defiance of the “corrupt” Yazid caliphate represents ethical braveness within the face of tyranny. (Eash yr, Shias all over the world mark Ashura, on the tenth of Muharram, with processions commemorating the martyrdom of Hussein.) In the course of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini invoked each sacrifice and braveness to mobilise opposition to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The monarch, Khomeini argued, was the brand new Yazid. He known as on Hussein’s followers, “the oppressed”, to rise. They usually did. Thousands and thousands, chopping throughout political currents, joined the rebellion, forcing the Shah to flee. After the monarchy’s collapse, the Islamists captured the state in 1979, and established the Islamic Republic.
Ideological core
After the revolution, many consultants and world leaders doubted that the theocratic state would endure. Inside a yr, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched invaded Iran, hoping to hasten the collapse of the fledgling republic. The brand new state was struggling to stabilise a fractured post-revolutionary order. Leftists, commerce unionists, Islamists and liberals had all opposed the Shah, and the clergy’s consolidation of energy deepened divisions inside this coalition.
However Saddam’s invasion modified the equation. Iranians rallies behind the flag; Saddam was solid because the modern-day Yazid. The Islamic Republic moved to purge leftists and liberals at dwelling with out upsetting any regime-threatening backlash, whereas the warfare was below method. In impact, the battle helped the clergy tighten its grip on energy. After Khamenei was killed on February 28, 2026, Larijani repeatedly invoked the concepts martyrdom. He stated, “the youngsters of Imam Hussein concern nothing”. After Larijani was killed, Mojataba Khamenei, Iran’s present Supreme Chief, stated, “shedding the blood of such folks on the foot of the mighty tree of the Islamic system will solely make it stronger”. Iran’s leaders know the post-revolutionary state faces its gravest problem in 47 years. However their response will not be to surrender the battle and flee, however to embrace the ideological core of the revolutionary state — martyrdom, sacrifice and vengeance.
Revealed – March 20, 2026 07:03 pm IST