Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst.

Iranian State TV confirms that Israel killed two of its top officials overnight.

Ali Larajani was the head of the country's Supreme National Security Council and acted as the country's de facto leader.

He was also a close confident of the late Supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini. And peers

Emily Fang has more on what his death means for the U.S. Israeli war in Iran. There are fears that

in his absence, his replacement might be even more hardline than Larajani. Laranini was seen as

very, very pragmatic, someone who could work with outside powers

while still being very, very loyal to the Supreme Leader

to the office of the Ayatollah.

And peers Emily Fang.

Israel also killed Brigadier General Soleimani,

the head of the powerful militia

that's aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

President Trump is pushing back against claims by Director of National Counterterrorism,

Joe Kent, about his motivation to attack Iran.

Kent quit today, saying he can't, in good conscience, back a war that he believes is Israel's doing.

Trump says Iran is a tremendous threat. As head of the

center, Kent, a former Green Beret and political candidate with connections to right-wing

extremists, was in charge of an agency tasked with analyzing and detecting terrorist threats. He was

a Trump supporter because Trump said he opposed wars in the Middle East.

To keep foreign bad actors like terrorists and drug traffickers out of the country, the federal government often imposes financial sanctions.

Anyone on the sanctions list is barred from doing business here.

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