TEHRAN: Iran on Monday praised the previous day’s drone and missile assault by Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group, claiming Israel had lost the ability to prevent such attacks
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday said the Iranian proxy group had launched a large-scale attack on Israel, targeting “the Glilot Base — the main Israeli military intelligence base” The installation was not hit
Iran crowing!
“The Zionist regime may be able to hide, distort or censor some facts regarding Lebanese Hezbollah operations but it knows very well that the existing facts will not change” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani posted on X
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“The Israeli terrorist army has lost its effective offensive and deterrent power and now must defend itself against strategic strikes
”Kanaani argued the Hezbollah attack “extended deep into the occupied territories” and that the “strategic balance has undergone fundamental changes” to the detriment of Israel
Kanaani also criticized the United States for its “comprehensive” support for Israel, which he said had failed to “predict the time and place” of Hezbollah’s actions
Iranian Axis of Resistance
The Iranian military chief of staff, Mohammad Bagheri, said the Hezbollah attack was part of Iran and its allies’ “revenge” against Israel. Bagheri said Teheran’s response to last month’s Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran was “inevitable”
Bagheri added: “Iran will decide how and when to take revenge. The Axis of Resistance will avenge the blood of Ismail Haniyeh, each member according to their own plan and capacity. What we saw yesterday (with Hezbollah’s attack) is part of the revenge”
The Pentagon on Monday warned of the ongoing threat posed to Israel by Iran and its allies
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“I would point you to some of the public comments that have been made by Iranian leaders and others… We continue to assess that there is a threat of attack” Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder tells reporters
Israel-Lebanon war
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Sunday compared the Hezbollah attack to the Second Lebanon War, the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which Ghalibaf referred to as an Israeli defeat
“Today’s defeat of the regime was on a par with the defeat in the 2006 operation and they cannot hide this defeat” Ghalibaf posted
Originally Posted by Hollander
Extract: Israel has often misjudged the possible outcome of a war with Hezbollah, such as in 2006. The goal was to destroy Hezbollah. After more than a month, a ceasefire was reached and the Israeli army withdrew, without a clear victory
Hezbollah
In a televised address, Hezbollah leader Nasrallah said his group had carried out a two-phased attack Firstly, Nasrallah claimed, the terror group fired over 320 Katyusha rockets on 11 different military sites to keep Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defense system busy and then it launched dozens of drones directed at central Israel
Hezbollah has named 430 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 73 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier and dozens of civilians have been killed
Targeted killings
Fears grew of a wider regional conflagration after the assassinations last month of Hamas chief Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut
Iran and its allies Hamas and Hezbollah have accused Israel of being behind both killings and vowed to seek revenge
Israel claimed responsibility for the airstrike that killed Shukr — who it blamed for a Hezbollah rocket attack in which 12 Israeli children were killed at Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights — but has remained silent regarding Haniyeh
Revenge attack
Tehran’s chief of staff calls revenge attack for the killing of Hamas chief Haniyeh in Tehran ‘inevitable’; Pentagon says Iran and its allies pose ongoing threat to Israel
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X late Sunday that Tehran’s reaction to Haniyeh’s death would be “definitive and will be measured [and] well calculated”
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“We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it — unlike Israel” Araghchi added
Hezbollah said its attack on Sunday was an “initial response” to Shukr’s killing but Nasrallah appeared to suggest in his address that the group’s retaliation had concluded.
