Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said that the assassination of Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, will not destabilize the country’s political system.

In an interview with Al Jazeera after Larijani’s assassination was confirmed, he said that the US and Israel still do not understand that Iran’s government does not depend on any one person. “I do not understand why the US and Israel still do not understand that the Islamic Republic of Iran has a strong political structure with established political, economic and social institutions,” Araghchi said. “The presence or absence of any one person does not affect this structure.”

“Of course, individuals are influential and each plays their role – some good, some bad, some less bad. But the important thing is Iran’s political system, which has a very strong structure,” he said.

Noting that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated on the first day of the joint US-Israeli attack, Foreign Minister Araghchi said that “the system continues” despite the huge national losses.

“There is nothing more important to us than the Supreme Leader,” he said. “Even after the Supreme Leader was martyred, the system continued its work and immediately presented alternatives.”

“Even if someone else had been martyred, the situation would have been the same. Even if the foreign minister had been martyred, there would have been someone to take responsibility,” Araghchi added.