Live updates: Israel launches ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon
Analysis: Iran has been reluctant to retaliate against Israel for the airstrike that killed a longtime Hezbollah leader
Iran lost its most reliable ally in the Middle East when an Israeli airstrike killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. But Iran isn’t leading the charge to retaliate.
That’s put Tehran in a bind: Not responding could see it alienate the militias it relies on in the region. Meanwhile, any possible retaliation risks a wider war as its theocracy faces intense challenges at home.
“By the grace and power of God, Lebanon will make the transgressing, malicious enemy regret its actions,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in the wake of Nasrallah’s death Friday.
Iranian demonstrators chant slogans at an anti-Israeli gathering in support of Hezbollah as they hold Iranian and Palestinian flags and a poster of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in downtown Tehran, Iran, early Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
But the 85-year-old paramount ruler in Iran gave no mention of his country taking action over the death of a man he once praised as “an exceptional face in the world of Islam” after the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.
That reluctance continued into Monday, as Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani told journalists that “the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian people are not after war” but rather “peace and stability in the region.”
Though Kananni added that “any adventurous move or action against our national security or interests and our hands will never be tied,” at one point wearing a checkered Palestinian keffiyeh scarf during his remarks.
These comments highlight a reticence in responding to Nasrallah’s death. Though his leadership of Hezbollah was the crown jewel in Iran’s decades-long strategy of arming regional militias to counter both Israel and the United States, Iran remains cautious about when — or if — it will strike back.
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