TEHRAN, Sept 29 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s supreme leader said, the death of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, “will not go unavenged,” a day after he was killed in an Israeli air strike.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced five days of mourning in Iran, in response to what he called the “martyrdom of the great Nasrallah,” describing him as “a path and a school of thought” that would continue.
An Iranian Revolutionary Guards general was also killed in the Israeli strikes in Beirut on Friday.
Key to what happens next in the Middle East is what Ayatollah Khamenei decides.
So far, he and other senior Iranian figures have refrained from vowing to retaliate, for the series of severe and humiliating blows that the Israeli regime has dealt Hezbollah in recent weeks, seemingly because Iran does not want a war with its arch-enemy.
Earlier yesterday, Ayatollah Khamenei urged Muslims to stand by Hezbollah, “with their resources and help” but did not promise to retaliate for the strike that killed Nasrallah.
“The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront,” he said.
Reuters news agency, meanwhile, cited two regional officials as saying that, the supreme leader had been transferred to a secure location inside Iran, with heightened security measures. They also said, Iran was in constant contact with Hezbollah and other allies to determine their next steps, according to the report.
Friday’s Israeli strike levelled several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahieh, underneath which the Israeli military said Hezbollah’s central headquarters was located.
Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death yesterday. But it did not comment on the Israeli military’s claim that Ali Karaki, head of the group’s Southern Front, and other commanders were also killed alongside Nasrallah.
Gen Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of operations, for Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), was also “martyred” in Dahiyeh on Friday, according to the Saberin News outlet.
It provided no further details, although the moderate Didban news website said he was “assassinated along with” Nasrallah.
Iran uses the IRGC to provide Hezbollah with most of its funding, training and weapons, which have allowed the Shia Islamist group to build a military wing stronger than the Lebanese army.
Yesterday, there were air raid sirens in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, after the Houthis launched a missile in support of Hezbollah.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of the Iraqi militias, also claimed new drone attacks on northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.– NNN-IRNA
