Iran's allies will 'not back down' from Israel, Ayatollah Khamenei warns

Photo: Ayatollah Khamenei’s website via Agence France-Presse The Hamas attack “is logical and legitimate,” the supreme leader of Iran, which does not recognize the existence of the State of Israel, argued on Friday. “This evil regime […] will not be around for long.”

Layal Abou Rahal – Agence France-Presse and Benoît Finck – Agence France-Presse respectively in Beirut and Jerusalem

Published at 7:08 a.m. Updated at 9:28 a.m.

• Middle East

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned Friday that his allies, mainly Hezbollah and Hamas, would continue fighting Israel, and defended Iran’s missile attack on its arch-enemy, amid growing fears of a flare-up in the Middle East.

Iran’s allies “will not back down,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a sermon to thousands at a large mosque in Tehran during weekly prayers.

This speech came in the midst of a war between the Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel, which in mid-September moved most of its operations to the northern front in Lebanon, after weakening Hamas in the Gaza Strip during a devastating offensive that is still ongoing.

This was launched in response to an attack of unprecedented violence and scale by the Palestinian movement Hamas on October 7, 2023 against Israel.

The Hamas attack “is logical and legitimate,” said the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which does not recognize the existence of the State of Israel.

“The resistance in the region will not retreat despite the martyrs and will achieve victory,” he added, referring to the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah killed on September 27 in an Israeli raid near Beirut, and that of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, killed on July 31 in an attack in Tehran blamed on Israel.

Israel “cannot do serious harm” to Hezbollah and Hamas, he said, stressing that Hezbollah’s fight provided a “vital service to the entire region.”

“Totally legitimate”

On Tuesday, Iran fired nearly 200 missiles toward Israel, saying it was responding to the assassination of Nasrallah and Haniyeh.

“The operation of our armed forces was totally legitimate,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. This is “the least” of the responses.

The attack has led to cross-threats of retaliation between Israel and Iran.

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On Thursday, US President Joe Biden said he was “in discussions” with Israel about possible strikes against oil facilities in Iran, a country that is among the ten largest oil producers.

Main Lebanon-Syria road cut off

In Lebanon, where Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated his country's “support” for Hezbollah, the Israeli army carried out a raid on the Masnaa area in the east of the country, cutting off a vital road link with neighboring Syria.

Israel accuses Hezbollah of transporting weapons from Syria. Around 310,000 people, mostly Syrians, have fled into Syria through the Masnaa border crossing in recent days.

The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah “infrastructure sites” adjacent to the Masnaa border crossing, including “an underground tunnel used to smuggle weapons across the border.”

More than 70 tons of explosives

During the night, particularly intense Israeli bombardments targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, destroying several buildings.

AFP images showed giant flames rising from the area, with thick smoke and flares.

“The ground shook beneath our feet. “The sky lit up,” said Mohammed Sheaito, a 31-year-old taxi driver, commenting on the strikes.

According to the Israeli news site Ynet, the warplanes dropped about 73 tons of explosives on Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Hachem Safieddine, a potential successor to Hassan Nasrallah as Hezbollah's leader, was one of the targets, along with other senior Hezbollah officials who were in the compound at the time, he added.

Asked by AFP whether Safieddine was the target, the Israeli army said it was “examining the information.”

Hezbollah accused Israel of carrying out a strike Friday in the southern suburbs “against civil defense teams who were clearing rubble and trying to recover the wounded, killing one of them.”

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Fighting in southern Lebanon

In the aftermath of the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, Hezbollah opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas.

After cross-border exchanges of fire for nearly a year, Israel has intensified its bombings in Lebanon since September 23, targeting hundreds of Hezbollah targets according to its army.

The Israeli army also launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon on Monday, where nine of its soldiers died in the fighting against Hezbollah.

On Friday, Hezbollah claimed to have fired shells at Israeli soldiers in the Lebanese border area of ​​Maroun al-Ras. He also announced that he had fired shells and rockets at Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel.

The Israeli army has said it will continue to inflict “severe blows” on Hezbollah, in order to allow the return of around 60,000 residents of border regions displaced by the Lebanese movement’s incessant rocket fire into northern Israel.

According to an AFP report based on official figures, nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, including at least 1,110 since September 23. The Lebanese government estimates the number of displaced at around 1.2 million.