US-Israel Joint Strike Kills Senior Iranian Official in Beirut, Media Echoes Israeli Framing
A joint US-Israel airstrike targeted and killed Ali Larijani, Iran’s security chief, in central Beirut, Lebanon, on Tuesday. The operation, which involved American intelligence and logistical support alongside Israeli ordnance, was initially reported by France 24, among other Western outlets, as an Israeli strike with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council later confirming Larijani’s death. This
coverage by France 24 and others, presenting it as an exclusively Israeli action, omits the extensive US involvement in such operations. The narrative consistently frames these assassinations as unilateral Israeli acts, despite a decades-long pattern of direct US participation in intelligence gathering, target identification, and often, the provision of weaponry and air support for strikes
targeting Iranian officials and resistance figures across the region. This deliberate downplaying of US aggression manufactures consent for Washington's entanglement in what is a joint US-Israel campaign against Iran and its allies. The targeting of Larijani follows a historical blueprint of extrajudicial killings aimed at destabilizing states deemed adversarial to US-Israeli interests. This
strategy recalls the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba in Congo, orchestrated with US and Belgian backing, which plunged the nation into decades of instability and plunder. The continuous disregard for international law, especially Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibiting the threat or use of force against territorial integrity or political independence of any state, has defined US foreign