Iran vowed on Tuesday to back the terrorist organization Hezbollah “by all means” against Israel if Jerusalem launches an offensive in neighboring Lebanon.
Kamal Kharrazi, Iranian foreign minister and top advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, issued a stark warning that a conflict in Lebanon could result in a regional war involving all Arab nations.
“All Lebanese people, Arab countries and members of the Axis of Resistance will support Lebanon against Israel,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times. “There would be a chance of expansion of the war to the whole region, in which all countries including Iran would become engaged.”
“In that situation, we would have no choice, but to support Hezbollah by all means,” he added.
A split screen showing Hamas terrorists, left, and Hezbollah Radwan forces, right. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images | AP/Hassan Ammar)
Kharrazi noted that “the expansion of war is not in the interest of anyone – not Iran or the U.S.,” but his comments came just one day after a top Iranian commander said he was itching for the opportunity to levy more strikes against Israel.
Speaking to the families of Palestinians killed during the fight in the Gaza Strip on Monday, Brigadier General of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Amir Ali Hajizadeh said he is “hopeful” another strike will be carried out against Jerusalem following the first attack in April.
Kamal Kharrazi, then foreign minister of Iran, waits to speak at the United Nations May 3, 2005 in New York City. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)
“We are hopeful of the arrival of the opportunity for [conducting] Operation True Promise 2,” Hajizadeh said, according to Iranian-owned media outlet Mehr News Agency.
The comments were in reference to the more than 300 drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles Tehran reportedly fired at Israel on April 14, the majority of which were stopped by Israeli and U.S. forces.
Commander of Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Amir Ali Hajizadeh gives a speech as Iran presents its first hypersonic ballistic missile “Fattah” (Conqueror) at an event in Tehran, Iran, on June 6, 2023. (Sepah News / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The strike marked the first time Iran directly attacked Israel despite years of proxy fighting and apparent covert hits on top military targets.
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Hajizadeh, who has played a critical role in developing Iran’s drone and missile program, did not say what the next attack against Jerusalem would look like but promised to continue supporting terrorists in the ongoing war against Israel.
“As it is obvious from the weapons of our dear ones in Palestine, Lebanon and elsewhere, it has now become clear that they are in fact being helped and supplied by Iran,” he said, according to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency.
An arch glorifying Hezbollah and baring pictures of its chief Hassan Nasrallah, right, and Iran’s spiritual leader Ali Khamenei decorates a street of Beirut’s southern suburb on Jan. 16, 2011. ( Photo: ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)
Tehran’s involvement in Jerusalem’s fight in the Gaza Strip has increasingly drawn international concern. Iran expert and senior fellow with The Foundation for Defense of Democracies Behnam Ben Taleblu said the strike in April “means that never again can the threat of a direct attack by the Islamic Republic against Israel be ignored.”
“That large a volley of cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and drones was designed to kill just as much as it was designed to send a message,” he added.
Smoke and flames rise following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, Gaza, on Nov. 2, 2023. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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The Hajizadeh’s comments came just days after Iran’s mission to the United Nations also threatened an “obliterating war” against Israel if it launched an offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah – a scenario Taleblu said Iran is using to exacerbate a “cycle of violence against Israel.”
“We are in the incubation phase of greater militia coordination. As Hamas fights Israel, Hezbollah is drawing resources from the south toward the north, while proxies in Yemen and Iraq are trying to synchronize their fire against the Jewish state,” he warned. “In the interim, Tehran is benefiting from the chaos.”