Since the beginning of the war in Iran, a defining feature has been the sustained campaign of assassinations targeting Iranian leadership by the United States and Israel.
From the opening strike killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28, to the targeting of other senior regime figures, Israel and the U.S. have pursued a strategy aimed at weakening Iran’s military capabilities and dismantling the regime itself.
Can a strategy of “decapitation,” the deliberate targeting of political and military leadership, be justified under international law?
What are the goals?
On March 2, Trump outlined the U.S. and Israel’s war objectives: Destroy Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities and “capacity to produce new ones,” annihilate Iran’s navy, ensure that the regime can’t obtain nuclear weapons, and prevent Tehran from arming, directing, and funding “terrorist armies outside of their borders.”
The method increasingly used to pursue these aims has been the systematic killing of Iranian leaders combined with strikes on military infrastructure, all without putting “boots on the ground.”
“The last job anyone in the world wants right now, senior leader for the IRGC or the Basij,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth said in March, calling those positions “temp jobs.”
Israel, while also interested in Trump’s goals, was largely focused on dismantling the revolutionary regime at the beginning of the war.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in March, “Israel’s policy is clear and unequivocal: no one in Iran has immunity — everyone is a target.”
WHO HAS BEEN KILLED SO FAR DURING THE IRAN WAR?
Assassination as a strategy
Israel has long employed targeted killings as a counterterrorism tool, typically aimed at people believed to be actively planning or executing attacks.
In that framework, such killings are justified not as punishment, but as prevention.
Legal scholar and former senior Israeli military legal advisor Amos Guiora argued targeted killing “was never with the notion of defeating a terrorist organization. … It was about preventing a specific act or stopping a particular individual.”
Guroa emphasized that the Israeli strategy of targeted killings is preventive.
“When we in Israel do target killing of a suspected terrorist, the strategy is to prevent an act of terrorism,” he said.
In a traditional targeted killing model, leaders identify a suspected terrorist and “work [their] way through international law principles … and make the conclusion that the only way to prevent an act of terrorism is to kill this particular individual,” Gurioa said.
The legal and moral foundation rests on imminence and necessity, or the idea that lethal force is used only when no other option can stop an impending threat, he said.
But Guiroa said the campaign against Iran is outside of that framework because the killing of a sitting head of state, such as Khamenei, does not fit neatly into the category of targeted killing.
“When Israel killed the now-former head of Iran, that’s not a targeted killing,” the former military adviser said. “That probably falls closer under the rubric as he’s a state leader of assassination.”
Guoria said international law permits the use of force, including lethal force, when it is aimed at stopping concrete, imminent threats, or is simply preventive.
“You can kill someone,” Guiora said, “but the question is always going to be for what purpose and to what end.”
For a decapitation strategy to be effective, legally and strategically, it must be tied to a broader, coherent plan.
“When you decide to kill someone, there has to be a strategy behind it, and an implementable strategy,” Guiora said.
Otherwise, the campaign risks becoming reactive rather than purposeful.
“If you don’t have a strategy … then the tactics are just reflexive rather than thought through,” Guiora added.
Where the conflict stands now
Earlier this week, the U.S. and Iran brokered a two-week peace deal, though the critical Strait of Hormuz remains closed.
U.S. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the operation had been largely successful, noting that a majority of Iran’s nuclear and military capabilities had been destroyed.
VANCE PREVIEWS IRAN NEGOTIATIONS AS HE DEPARTS FOR ISLAMABAD: ‘EXTEND THE OPEN HAND
This weekend, Vice President JD Vance will lead the U.S. envoys during negotiations. The negotiations are expected to center on Israel’s strikes against Lebanon and opening the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. officials, though, have indicated that the military would be capable of resuming combat operations with equal effectiveness if required. Over the next two weeks, the U.S. plans to send additional forces to the Gulf region to reinforce that warning.