Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed “resistance” against Israel as Tehran-backed Hezbollah held a funeral Sunday in Beirut for its leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike last year.
“The enemy should know that resistance against usurpation, oppression and arrogance is never-ending and will continue until the desired goal is achieved,” Khamenei said in a statement published on his official website.
Nasrallah was killed alongside Iranian Revolutionary Guards general Abbas Nilforoushan in an Israeli strike on south Beirut on September 27, during a war between Israel and Hezbollah that ended in a November ceasefire.
Tens of thousands of mourners gathered in the Lebanese capital for the funeral of the longtime Hezbollah chief and his heir apparent Hashem Safieddine, who was killed in a separate strike.
Khamenei praised Nasrallah as “a great mujahid (fighter) and prominent leader”, and Safieddine as “a close confidant and an inseparable part of the leadership”.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in Beirut for the funeral along with parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and deputy Revolutionary Guards commander Ali Fadavi, said the fight against “oppression and occupation” will continue.
Nasrallah’s death was “not the end of the road”, Araghchi said, but “a new point in the ongoing struggle against oppression and occupation”.
Iranian state television broadcast the funeral live, with an anchor reciting poems hailing Hezbollah “resistance” fighters.
It also aired images of gatherings in the capital Tehran and other Iranian cities to mourn Nasrallah and Safieddine.
Hezbollah has long been part of the “axis of resistance”, an alliance of Iran-backed armed groups opposed to Israel and its ally the United States.
It comes as Iran‘s supreme leader said Tuesday that Gaza had brought Israel “to its knees”, in a reference to the recent ceasefire in the Palestinian territory.
The ceasefire and prisoner-exchange deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect just over a week ago, aiming to put an end to more than 15 months of war.
“The small, limited Gaza brought the Zionist regime, armed to the teeth, and fully supported by America, to its knees,” Khamenei said during a meeting with officials in Tehran.
