Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani met Bashar Assad upon landing in Damascus Friday. He travels next to Beirut for a conference with Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, then on to the Turkish capital. DEBKAfile: Larijani ranks as the second most powerful man in Tehran today after Supreme Leader Khamenei and frontrunner as Iran’s next president. He needs to chart the next military steps for Iran’s allies after the Islamic Republic’s aspirations for the Gaza Strip took a beating from Israel’s military operation this week.