The Silence of the Sphinx: Ali Larijani 's Death and the Collapse of Iranian Pragmatism

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

61% : He also served as a vital back-channel for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the JCPOA.
59% : While Israel maintains its standard policy of strategic ambiguity, the message of this assassination remains absolutely unmistakable to all.
56% : He served as a key architect for the 25-year China deal and was a vital negotiator for the JCPOA.
47% : Israel is now actively dismantling the political bridge that connects the Iranian government to the rest of the world.
46% : By targeting a political figure of his stature, Israel has effectively declared that the era of negotiation is over.
39% : [i] Instead of a coup, the death might foster a desperate and unified military retaliation against the state of Israel.
39% : If the Iranian government does not fracture as Israel hopes, the resulting conflict could be far more violent than before.
37% : While Israel has not officially claimed responsibility -- following its standard policy of "ambiguity" -- the surgical nature of the strike on a high-security villa suggests a level of intelligence penetration that has left Tehran in a state of paranoid paralysis.
35% : The gambit refers to Israel's bet that killing Larijani would cause the Iranian government to fracture from internal paranoia.
33% : By eliminating Larijani, Israel is betting that the Iranian government will eventually fracture under the weight of internal paranoia.

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