Extract from ABC News
Ali Larijani in Beirut on August 13, 2025, as Hezbollah supporters throw rice to welcome him. (AP: Bilal Hussein)
G’day, Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran with you again this morning, from Beirut.
Here's today's daily update, to get you up to speed with the latest happenings in the region.
Here's what you need to know today:
- Israel has claimed it has killed another of Iran’s top brass, with Ali Larijani the latest in a long list of officials to be targeted by strikes in the past two and a half weeks. Mr Larijani was incredibly influential within Iran, with the apparent backing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
- The Iranian retaliation for that attack, which also reportedly killed the head of Iran’s Basij paramilitary forces, General Gholam Reza Soleimani, came quickly – an Iranian missile barrage sent millions across Israel running to shelters. Damage from falling debris was reported in several locations near Tel Aviv.
- In Lebanon, the death toll continues to rise and rise – health authorities are now saying 912 people have been killed and 2,221 injured in the past fortnight from Israeli strikes across the south and in Beirut itself.
- The Israeli military said it was hitting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah even harder, and that it had detected the group making more preparations for missile launches at Israel. Australia's government said it condemned the expansion of the conflict into Lebanon, and warned a major ground invasion would only make the situation worse, a day after five of the G7 made similar remarks.
- US President Donald Trump is finding fewer and fewer countries actually want to help in this war. He's labelled NATO, an institution he's not always been a huge fan of, as "foolish" for not joining in. And more countries are saying they don't want to take any military action to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping again – including France.
Here's what all that means
As reports started to emerge that Mr Larijani, the leader of Iran's powerful National Security Council, had been killed, Israel's prime minister was quick to take credit for it. There’s a word in Israel, hasbara, which is used to explain how the country's PR machine swings into gear. And there was Benjamin Netanyahu, pictured on the phone ordering the strikes— according to his office, who supplied the snap.
At the time of writing, Iranian state media has not confirmed that Mr Larijani or Mr Soleimani have been killed – but that's not entirely surprising, given how Iran also controls its messaging.
Mr Larijani is an incredibly influential figure in Iran. The last supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who also met his end as a result of Israeli missiles, promoted him in August last year.
He had been described by some as the de facto leader of the country and had been somewhat at odds in his public declarations with the Iranian President, Mahsoud Pezeshkian – someone regularly described as not speaking for the regime, particularly the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Israeli and US strikes have torn through the Iranian regime’s leadership – it's something of a who's who of who's left. But the regime continues to hold onto power, indicative of how its leadership has been devolved in a way that it can keep operating even as key players are taken out.
Israel has said it has thousands of targets still to strike in Iran. It is also continuing its attacks across Lebanon, where it is expanding its ground invasion, and is seemingly bracing for more retaliation from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in the coming hours.
The humanitarian crisis fuelled by the Israeli strikes is clear to see in a place like Beirut. We visited a school, now running as a refuge for more than 600 displaced people, and another emergency shelter which had been set up inside an unfinished council building.
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