iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated that the killing of Hezbollah commander Hassan Nasrallah will be avenged, and that other militants would continue Nasrallah’s battle against Israel.
“(Nasrallah) was not an individual. He was a path and a school of thought and the path will be continued,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, in a statement read on state television in which he announced five days of mourning in Iran.
“The blood of the martyr shall not go unavenged,” he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei, in an earlier statement issued after the Israeli army said it had killed Nasrallah, said: “The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront,” state media reported.
After Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death, Iranian media reported that General Abbas Nilforoushan, a deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, had died “next to Nasrallah” in the Israeli strikes on south Beirut on Sept 27.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian blamed Nasrallah’s killing partly on the United States, which has long supplied Israel with advanced weapons.
“The Americans cannot deny their complicity with the Zionists,” Mr Pezeshkian said, in a statement carried by state media.
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Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani vowed in a post on X that Nasrallah’s “path will be continued and his holy goal will be realised in the liberation of Jerusalem”.
Meanwhile, two regional officials briefed by Tehran told Reuters that Ayatollah Khamenei has been transferred to a secure location inside the country with heightened security measures in place.
The sources said Iran was in constant contact with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other regional proxy groups to determine the next step after the killing of Nasrallah.
According to a report, after the Israeli military said it had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said from a secure location that Hezbollah is at the forefront the forces of resistance which will determine the fate of the region.
While Reuters cited unnamed sources as saying that Khamenei has been moved to secure location, the Supreme Leader issued a massage Saturday, calling on Muslims “to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the … wicked regime (of Israel)”.
“Zionist criminals should know that they are far too insignificant to inflict any serious damage on the strong foundation of Hezbollah in Lebanon. All the resistance forces in the region stand alongside and support Hezbollah. The fate of this region will be determined by the resistance forces, with Hezbollah at the forefront,” he said in his message.
He added that “the Zionist regime had failed to learn from its year-long criminal war in Gaza” and was now repeating the same mistakes in Lebanon.
The Israeli military said on Saturday it had killed Nasrallah in an airstrike on the group’s central headquarters in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Friday. However, uncertainty persists about the status of Hezbollah’s leader as no official reaction has been made by the group or the Islamic Republic.
The Israeli military “eliminated … Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote in a statement on X.
Later, in a briefing with reporters the IDF spokesman confirmed the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and added: “I want to say this very clearly—Nasrallah was one of the world’s strongest and most influential terrorists, and one of the terrorists with the most capabilities in the world. He was a real threat, with the blood of thousands of people on his hands.”
Government-controlled media in Tehran was simply repeating the news about the IDF announcement, while large banners were installed in the capital proclaiming “Hezbollah is alive.” There have been no explicit Iranian threats about a potential retaliation against Israel, although some hardliners have voiced the need for revenge.
