Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel’s military had killed Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, head of the navy of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Tangsiri and other senior naval commanders died in an Israeli strike overnight, Defense Minister Israel Katz said. Iran’s government has not officially confirmed the death. U.S. Central Command has.
“This man had a great deal of blood on his hands,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on X. “He was also the one who led the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.” The strike, he added, was “another example of the cooperation” between Israel and the United States “toward the common goal of achieving the objectives of the war.”
Centcom’s statement
Adm. Brad Cooper, who heads Centcom, said the Treasury Department designated Tangsiri a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” in June 2019 and sanctioned him for drone development five years later. Tangsiri’s death “from an Israeli airstrike makes the region safer,” Cooper said.
Cooper said Tangsiri commanded the Guard’s navy for eight years. In that time, he said, it harassed thousands of merchant mariners, attacked hundreds of vessels with one-way attack drones and missiles, and killed countless innocent civilians.
A strait still shut
The Strait of Hormuz closed after the conflict began late last month. Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, ordered it to stay closed until all hostilities cease. Oil and gas prices have jumped. AAA put the U.S. national average for gasoline at $3.98 per gallon on Thursday. On Feb. 26, two days before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, it was $1 cheaper.
Several Iranian officials have been killed since the fighting started, including former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Talks and tough words
Officials in Tehran rejected a 15-point peace plan from the United States and submitted a counterproposal. It asks for Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to all hostilities and a halt to attacks on the country’s officials.
President Donald Trump accused the Iranians of “begging” for a deal and of only “looking at our proposal.” He then posted on Truth Social: “WRONG!!! They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty!” He had earlier called the talks “productive” and said the U.S. would not negotiate with Mojtaba Khamenei.
Iranian officials sounded defiant on social media. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state media the U.S. had failed to achieve its objectives, and he rejected the idea that Iran was negotiating directly with Washington. On X he wrote that the U.S. “condemns Iran for defending itself in Strait of Hormuz” while backing Israel’s Gaza blockade, and called it a “double standard.”
