Bibi Tries to Assassinate 'Off Ramp' for Trump in Iran

March 17—Israeli forces today assassinated Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, in overnight airstrikes, in an effort to slow for the time being a potential negotiated ceasefire and "off ramp" for President Donald Trump from a war posing severe economic and political risks for the U.S.

Informed sources say that despite the rhetoric from both sides eschewing a ceasefire in favor of additional fighting, there were quiet back channel negotiations taking place, brokered by Russia and its President Vladimir Putin, along with the Gulf States, with Iranian leaders who are seeking an end to the war. The sources say that Larijani knew of and approved the negotiations and that he would be the one person with enough power to push a proposed ceasefire deal through the Iranian leadership.

Assassination Coordinated Through Inside Informants

These and other sources say that the assassination was made possible by high-level informants within Iran's leadership who gave the Israelis information about the location of his safehouse. Information was also provided about the location of Gholamreza Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Basij militia, an all-volunteer paramilitary force, who was also killed in the airstrikes. (The Basij forces are armed with batons and not firearms and were used for crowd control during protests earlier this year; when Israeli agents started paying and arming operatives, they slaughtered as many as 4,000 of the unarmed Basij before regular police and Revolutionary Guard units put down the violent riots, targeting the Israeli-armed provocateurs, but killing many more people as the armed provocateurs were embedded in crowds.)

Several media sources, including Foreign Policy, shared information that Larijani was viewed as "the likeliest interlocutor to negotiate with Washington." Both deaths have now been confirmed by Iranian government sources, who announced that they have struck both Israeli and American targets in retaliation, including the American embassy in Baghdad.

Trump’s Response and Strained U.S.–Israeli Dynamics

Trump said again today that he had received signals that Iran is prepared to seriously negotiate an end to the war but that he wants better terms than are being offered. He also expressed his confidence that despite the refusal of European nations to cooperate with his plans, oil would soon move freely through the Gulf of Hormuz.

Trump claims that Israel is his only reliable ally in his fight with Iran. But sources say that Trump is minimally aware that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is pursuing "his own game in this war," as a source close to the White House stated. This source and others have confirmed that it was Netanyahu’s decision to strike Iran—regardless of the fact that a viable nuclear deal with Tehran had been negotiated and required only technical details to be worked out—that forced Trump into joining the Israeli attack.

"The White House officially denies this, but it is true," the source confirmed.

Netanyahu’s Strategy: Keep the War Going

"Bibi's strategy is to prolong the war as long as possible, to offer Trump no off ramp," another source with decades of experience in the region confirmed. "Ideally, he wants the war to continue long enough to get Iranians to take to the streets to demand its end. What Netanyahu really wants is enough time that his 100,000 agents in Iran could arm enough people to bring them into a violent bloody clash with Revolutionary Guards. Get them slaughtered and then hope that would cause the U.S. to commit ground troops to get a real bloody, destructive mess going. And that means you can’t have an off ramp for Trump now, with a person on the Iranian side to push a deal through.

"So, that is why he had Larijani killed now."

Israeli Goals and Growing Costs of War

The Washington Post reported today that it had gotten hold of a Friday cable circulated by the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem that reported Israeli officials are hoping for mass anti-government protests in Iran—even though they believe that “the people will get slaughtered” in response. The Post seemed confused as to why the Israelis would want such an outcome.

“We are undermining this regime in the hope of giving the Iranian people an opportunity to remove it,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video posted on Tuesday announcing the killing of Larijani and Soleimani. But sources report that the Israelis, while claiming they are striking "police infrastructure," are hitting empty police stations and doing massive collateral damage.

"The goal," said one source of the Israeli strategy, "is to make as much of Iran as possible look and feel like Gaza."

A True 'False' Report?

Meanwhile, a report that appeared in a U.S. defense journal Semafor claiming that Israel was already running out of interceptor missiles and would soon be unable to protect Israeli cities was strenuously denied by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Some sources continue to say that the report was true and that the IDF was trying to avoid panic by denying it, which raised the question of who had leaked the information and why. Sources report that it was most likely leaked by people in the U.S. close to Trump, who were trying to set in motion the idea that the war must end soon or it will be a disaster for Israel.

Wrote respected strategic analyst Amos Harel in Haaretz March 16: "Who might have an interest in circulating a report about Israel's alleged lack of missile interceptors at a moment like this? It's hard to see how it could have originated from an Israeli leak. A more likely assessment is that it came from the United States and that the aim was to affect the course of the war… The claim that its main ally in the war is becoming vulnerable, following similar reports about the depletion of interceptors in Arab states in the Persian Gulf, could have been leaked in an attempt to prepare American public opinion for the end of the war. The war is not popular with voters."

Dissent Emerges in Administration

Then this morning, Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, announced his resignation on Tuesday, saying he "cannot in good conscience" back the Trump administration's war in Iran. Kent was considered a close ally of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Kent said on social media that Iran "posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."

Gabbard, in accepting Kent's resignation, praised his work but said she supported the President's decision to launch the war against Iran because he believed it threatened American interests.

The President said that he had always thought that Kent, a military veteran with a background in intelligence, was a "great guy...but he is weak on threats. He says Iran is not a threat..."