The Middle East is entering unknown territory. Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has promised revenge this Saturday after the death of Hasan Nasrallah, the top leader of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, killed in an Israeli air strike this Friday in Beirut. The proclamation by Iran’s supreme leader, who has declared five days of official mourning, comes while thousands of citizens of that country, the main ally of the Lebanese militia-party, have protested in the streets this Saturday and demanded retaliation for the death. of the head of the Shiite group. The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has assured that he has given orders to “de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic channels,” while he has closed ranks with Israel by supporting its right to defend itself and classify death. of Nasrallah as a “show of justice for its many victims.”
“Nasrallah’s blood will not go unpunished,” Khamenei said. “The resistance front’s attacks on the worn-out and decaying body of the Zionist regime [Israel] “They will be more impactful,” warned the highest Iranian authority, who has also indicated that the “evil nature of the Zionist regime has not won in this action.” “[Nasralá] was not an individual. It was a path and a school of thought and the path will continue,” the ayatollah said. The Reuters news agency has assured that, according to its sources, Khamenei has been transferred to a safe place within the country with reinforced security measures. Iran is in constant contact with Hezbollah and other related regional groups to determine the next step after the assassination of Nasrallah.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkianhas accused the United States of complicity in Nasrallah’s death. “The international community will not forget that the order for this terrorist attack was issued from New York and the Americans cannot exempt themselves from complicity with the Zionists,” Pezeshkian said in a statement collected by the state agency IRNA. According to Iranian media, in the bombing of Nasrallah at Hezbollah headquarters, Israel also killed the deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Brigadier General Abbas Nilfrushan.
“Revenge”, “death to Israel and “death to the United States” are some of the slogans that Iranians have chanted in Tehran’s Palestine Square, according to the same agency. The protesters have waved the flags of Iran, Palestine and Hezbollah, which together with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and the Houthi rebels of Yemen, among others, make up the anti-Israeli alliance known as the Axis of Resistance, led by Tehran. Similar protests have occurred in cities such as Isfahan, Kerman, Qom and Mashad.
Iran is one of the main allies of Lebanon and Hezbollah, which it has supported since its founding in the 1980s, and one of its closest allies. The Islamic Republic and Israel are bitter enemies, they pose a mutual existential threat, compete for regional hegemony and maintain a covert war with cyberattacks, assassinations and sabotage.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, after the Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, there are fears that the conflict will intensify with the direct involvement of Iran. In April, Tehran launched an unprecedented attack against Israel with more than 200 drones and missiles in retaliation for the murder of seven of its military commanders a few days earlier in a bombing of a consular building in Damascus. The vast majority were intercepted before reaching the Jewish State.
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De-escalation
In a statement whose forcefulness contrasts with the initial hesitation of his Administration regarding the powerful Israeli bombing of Beirut on Friday, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, this Saturday supported the content of the speech of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the UN. “The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself from Hezbollah, Hamas, the [rebeldes chiíes yemeníes] Houthis and any other terrorist group supported by Iran,” says the White House statement, which calls Nasrallah’s death a “measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese civilians.”
Biden has attributed the death of hundreds of Americans “during a four-decade reign of terror” to the leader of Hezbollah “and the terrorist group he led,” alluding to the deadly attacks against the American embassy and the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.
According to Biden’s statement, “the attack that killed Nasrallah occurred in the broader context of the conflict that began with the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023. The next day, Nasrallah made the fateful decision to join Hamas and open what he called a ‘northern front’ against Israel,” he explains in line with the Israeli narrative. For this reason, he emphasizes, his country “fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself.” Biden has ordered Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to reinforce “the defense lines of US military forces in the Middle East to deter any aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.”
These movements aim, “ultimately,” to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon “through diplomatic means,” the president says. “In Gaza, we have sought an agreement supported by the UN Security Council [donde EE UU ha vetado tres resoluciones] for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. In Lebanon, we have been negotiating an agreement for the population to return safely to their homes in Israel and southern Lebanon. It is time for these agreements to be closed, for the threats to Israel to disappear and for the Middle East region as a whole to acquire greater stability,” the presidential statement concludes.
Shortly after Biden’s statement was released, Vice President Kamala Harris, Democratic candidate for the November elections, reacted to the death of the leader of the Lebanese Shiite militia party in almost identical terms, through another statement in which she reiterated her “ “unwavering commitment to Israel’s security.”
Mourning in Iraq and Syria
In addition to Lebanon and Iran, Iraq has announced three days of mourning for the death of Hezbollah’s secretary general. For the Prime Minister of Iraq, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, the assassination of Nasrallah demonstrates “the reckless desire to expand the conflict at the expense of all the people of the region and their security and stability.” Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada el Sadr referred to Nasrallah as a “comrade in the resistance.”
Syria has also announced several days of mourning and has condemned the “cowardly and brutal Israeli aggression,” according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The text described the assassination of the Hezbollah leader as a “despicable action” and considers it an example of Israel’s “contempt” for international laws.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have also declared three days of mourning. This Saturday, the Israeli Army confirmed having intercepted “outside the country’s borders” a surface-to-surface ballistic missile launched against the center of the country from Yemen. The Houthis, who are also supported by the Iranian regime, have carried out dozens of attacks in the Red Sea since the start of the Israeli military offensive in Gaza almost a year ago.
