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Iran’s supreme leader has warned Tehran will not back down after Israel reportedly targeted the successor of slain Tehran-backed Hezbollah’s leader Nasrallah Hassan in Lebanon.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed his country and his regional proxies across the Middle East would carry on fighting Israel as tensions escalate across the region.
“The brilliant action of our armed forces a couple of nights ago was completely legal and legitimate”, Khamenei said of a massive missile barrage that saw around at least 180 rockets launched at Israel.
It comes after Beirut was rocked by huge explosions on Thursday night amid reports senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, regarded as the group’s next leader, was targeted in Israeli strikes.
At least one Israeli strike hit outside the perimeter of the Lebanese capital’s international airport early on Friday, according to a source in Lebanon's ministry of transport and public works.
Iran’s “axis of resistance” comprises a group of violent proxies across Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and Palestine, coordinated by Iran’s Quds Force, the foreign arm of the IRGC. The Quds Force’s aim is to export Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution abroad and is opposed to any US or Israeli influence in the Middle East.
