Has Israel killed Larijani to keep the Iran war going?

It was meant to break Iran's hardline leadership, believed the Israelis and Americans. Instead, their actions might have hardened the Iranian regime further, which could bite the duo back. This is exactly what several experts are saying about the killing of Iran's secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, in an Israeli airstrike. Larijani had emerged as the key architect of the country's military and diplomatic strategy since the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the military brass on February 28.

With the killing of the "pragmatic" Larijani, the Israelis have narrowed the Iranian leadership circle, which might choose to prolong the war. Larijani was seen as one of the top Iranian officials who would have been open to talks with Iran's "adversaries", the US and Israel, who huddled to decapitate the leadership in Tehran.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently described Larijani as the "flesh and blood" of the Iranian clerical regime.