What to know about targeted strikes on Iran's leadership?

How will the war be affected?

Analysts warn that Israel's campaign of targeted killings, however tactically striking, may be making the war harder to end, not easier.

They noted that Larijani, despite his recent hawkish turn, was a figure who might have been open to serious negotiations with the United States. Trita Parsi, co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, argued that Israel killed Larijani precisely to foreclose that possibility, eliminating any potential "off-ramp" for the Trump administration before one could be taken.

Iranian scholar Seyed Emamian said the Trump administration, with no quick victory in sight, is already searching for a face-saving exit, and that Larijani's death may have removed the most viable path to one.

The pattern itself has attracted criticism. Israeli political commentator Ori Goldberg wrote that Israel's relentless resort to assassination reflects a government that has grown not merely comfortable with the tactic, but dependent on it.

Vali Nasr, a Middle East scholar at Johns Hopkins University, offered a stark assessment: the killings, he said, are likely to make Iran's remaining leadership more rigid and uncompromising, ultimately entangling the United States more deeply in a prolonged regional conflict rather than shortening it.