Larry Jannati's Death: Fatalism and Disregard for Death

On March 17, the Iranian official news agency (Tasnim News Agency) officially confirmed that Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and de facto wartime leader, has died. As an active public politician, Larijani continued to engage with journalists, attend various events even during the war, and even walked on the streets of Tehran a few days ago to participate in demonstrations.

Therefore, considering his public activities, it was almost not difficult for Israel and the United States to pinpoint his location. Moreover, he himself did not make any effort to hide his whereabouts.

According to reports, he died at his daughter's home in Pardis City, a suburb of Tehran. Also killed were his son Morteza and the head of security. Note that it was not a military base or a bunker, but a regular residential house, indicating that he had not entered a wartime shelter state at all.

In general, this is the typical mindset of many high-ranking officials in Iran: a mixture of fatalism and disregard for death.

In Iran, "hiding" equals political suicide. Iran is a theocratic republic, and its legitimacy comes from popular support. During wartime, senior officials must appear in public, go on the streets, meet people, and speak. Once they hide in a bunker and disappear, the domestic population will immediately spread rumors such as "the leader ran away," "senior officials are scared," or "the regime is about to collapse." Once public morale collapses, it is more deadly than missiles. Therefore, they would rather risk being killed than lose the image of the people.

In Iran's religious culture, God determines life and death; hiding is useless. Senior officials in Iran generally believe: if it's your time to die, you'll die even if you hide underground; if it's not your time, a bomb next to you won't hit you. This is not just stubbornness; it's a real worldview. To them, hiding means not believing in fate, which is weakness. So their attitude of disregarding death is not performance, but culture.

They have long lived under the risk of assassination and have become accustomed to it. Since the Iranian Revolution: prime ministers were assassinated; presidents were assassinated; nuclear scientists were assassinated; senior generals were assassinated.

Several generations of Iranian leaders have grown up in an environment where death could happen at any moment. For them, risk is a daily routine, not sudden panic. Public appearances themselves are a form of deterrence. They want to convey one message to the United States and Israel: "We don't fear you, you can bomb as you like, but we will still go out on the streets."

In Middle Eastern politics, the posture of courage equals strength. Hiding away is equivalent to surrendering.

However, the Iranian senior leadership truly underestimated Israel's infiltration capabilities. Larijani was not careless; it was the entire Iranian system that underestimated the penetration ability of the enemy.

Iranians have always believed that "we have an intelligence network, we have air defense, and Tehran is safe." But this time again proved Israel's penetration capability. Even if you are at your daughter's house, in the suburbs, in a regular building, I can still accurately bomb you.

Iranian senior officials are not afraid of death, but they cannot hide, dare not hide, and do not believe that hiding is useful. Their power, beliefs, and way of political survival force them to be in the open.

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1859946035592204/

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