Iran’s chief foreign affairs strategist ‘gravely wounded’ in US-Israeli attack

The head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, Kamal Kharrazi, was wounded in a reported US-Israeli strike on his home on Wednesday that also killed his wife, Iranian state media said.

Kharrazi, a 81-year-old former foreign minister, reportedly sustained serious injuries and has been transferred to hospital for treatment. 

A key adviser under former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei, Kharrazi is the latest high-profile government figure to be targeted by US-Israeli air strikes.

A former academic educated partly in the United States before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Kharrazi went on to play a key role in Iran’s diplomacy as ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations from 1989 to 1997, before serving as foreign minister from 1997 to 2005.

After the attacks on Iran began on 28 February, he emerged as a key conduit for potential diplomatic efforts to end the war, leading to speculation that he may have been targeted to disrupt those channels.

However, more recently, Kharrazi had all but ruled out diplomacy entirely.

He told CNN in March, “I don’t see any room for diplomacy anymore. Because Donald Trump had been deceiving others and not keeping with his promises, and we experienced this in two times of negotiations – that while we were engaged in negotiation, they struck us.”

If he succumbs to his wounds, Kharrazi would be the latest senior Iranian official killed since the war began.

In addition to Khamenei, top security adviser Ali Shamkhani, Revolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Pakpour, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi, and Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh were all killed on the first day of the war.

Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, was killed on 17 March, along with his son and one of his ⁠deputies. Intelligence minister and head of civilian monitoring, Esmail Khatib, was killed in an Israeli strike a day later.

The latest high-profile assassination attempt comes as the US and Israel have vowed to carry out more aggressive attacks against Iran, which have already killed thousands.