The Iranian President-elect, Massoud Pezeshkian, declared this Monday his support for the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and condemned Israel’s “warmongering and criminal policies” against the Palestinians and other peoples of the Middle East. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has always supported the resistance of the people of the region against the illegitimate Zionist regime,” said Pezeshkian, referring to Israel, in a message addressed to the leader of the Lebanese movement, Hassan Nasrallah, reproduced by national news agency IRNA.
“Support for the resistance is anchored in the fundamental policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” added reformer Pezeshkian, who won the presidential elections on Saturday against ultraconservative Said Jalili. The elected President expressed confidence in the “resistance movement” not to allow Israel, Iran’s enemy, to “continue its aggressive and criminal policies” against Palestine and other nations in the region.
Iranian diplomacy spokesman Nasser Kanani had already declared that the Islamic Republic “will not hesitate to support the Lebanese nation and the security of this country at the appropriate time.” “The Zionist regime must be aware of the consequences of any adventurous action in the region, particularly with regard to Lebanon,” he added.
Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Tehran, have exchanged fire almost daily on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, increasing fears of outbreak of a new regional conflict.
Iran’s presidential elections, scheduled for 2025, were brought forward by the death of President Ebrahim Raissi in a helicopter crash in May. Nasrallah congratulated Pezeshkian on Saturday on his election, emphasizing Tehran’s role as a strong supporter of groups hostile to Israel in the region. The Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, assessed that the result of the vote constituted a “clear message of demand for change and opposition” from the Iranian people.
Iran carried out an unprecedented drone and missile attack against Israel on April 13, claiming to have acted in self-defense following the bombing that destroyed its consulate in Damascus and killed seven Iranian soldiers, including two senior officers.
Israel has never confirmed nor denied its involvement in this attack, at the same time that it continues its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in response to the attack that the Palestinian group carried out on Israeli soil on October 7, killing almost 1,200 people and taking more than 200 as hostages.
The conflict in the Palestinian territory has already claimed the lives of more than 38 thousand people, most of them civilians, and triggered a humanitarian catastrophe, threatening to spread to Lebanon and other countries in the region.
