By Micah Jonah
March 1, 2026
Senior Iranian official Ali Shamkhani has reportedly been killed in the latest wave of United States and Israeli strikes on Iran, according to Israeli military sources.
An Israeli spokesperson said Shamkhani was among several high-ranking Iranian figures targeted on Saturday. There was no immediate confirmation from Tehran regarding his fate.
The 70-year-old official served as secretary of Iran’s Defence Council and was a close adviser to Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. He had been directly involved in negotiations with Washington over Iran’s nuclear programme, with the latest round of talks concluding just a day before the reported strike.
On Thursday, Shamkhani stated that if the core issue was preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, an agreement was within reach, referencing Iran’s long-standing religious decree against nuclear arms.
Shamkhani had previously survived an Israeli strike during the June 2025 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel. At the time, reports initially suggested he had been killed, but he was later confirmed alive after being pulled from the rubble of his residence with serious injuries.
Earlier this year, he was appointed secretary of Iran’s Defence Council, a body established after the 2025 conflict to coordinate national defence and security strategy. In January, he warned that any US military action against Iran would trigger an “immediate, all out, and unprecedented” response.
Shamkhani previously led Iran’s Supreme National Security Council for a decade until 2023, making him one of the country’s longest-serving security chiefs since the 1979 revolution.
Born in Ahvaz in Iran’s Khuzestan province, he briefly lived in the United States before returning to Iran to study engineering. During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, he served as a commander in the Revolutionary Guard Corps and later headed both Iran’s regular navy and the IRGC navy.
He also served as defence minister from 1997 to 2005 and was the first Iranian defence official to visit Saudi Arabia after the revolution. In 2001, he ran for president, finishing third before returning to his defence portfolio.
If confirmed, his death would mark another major blow to Iran’s leadership amid rapidly escalating tensions across the Middle East
