DUBAI: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslims on Saturday “to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the ... wicked regime (of the Zionist entity)”. Khamenei, in a statement after the Zionist army said it had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, said: “The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront”, state media reported.

“The massacre of the defenseless people in Lebanon once again revealed the ferocity of the Zionist rabid dog to everyone, and proved the short-sighted and stupid policy of the leaders of the usurping regime,” Khamenei said in a statement. A black flag of mourning was hoisted at the Imam Reza shrine in Iran’s second city of Mashhad, the Tasnim news agency reported. Mourners gathered waving yellow Hezbollah flags and chanting: “Death to Israel”, state TV footage showed.

After Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death, Iranian media reported that General Abbas Nilforoushan, a deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, had died “next to Nasrallah” in the Zionist strikes on south Beirut on Friday. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian blamed Nasrallah’s killing partly on the United States which has long

supplied the Zionist entity with advanced weapons. “The Americans cannot deny their complicity with the Zionists,” Pezeshkian said in a statement carried by state media.

Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said Saturday that the killing of Nasrallah will bring about the Zionist entity’s “destruction”. “We warn the leaders of the occupying regime that the unjust bloodshed... especially of Hezbollah’s secretary general, martyr Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, will bring about their destruction,” Iran’s ISNA news agency quoted Aref as saying. Aref said that Iran will “stand by the Islamic resistance”.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani vowed in a post on X that Nasrallah’s “path will be continued and his holy goal will be realized in the liberation of Jerusalem”. Meanwhile, two regional officials briefed by Tehran told Reuters that Khamenei has been transferred to a secure location inside the country with heightened security measures in place. The sources said Iran was in constant contact with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other regional proxy groups to determine the next step after the killing of Nasrallah.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday the Zionist entity was committing a genocide in Lebanon after Nasrallah was confirmed among hundreds killed in Zionist strikes this week. “Lebanon and the Lebanese people are the latest target of a policy of genocide, occupation and invasion carried out by (the Zionist entity) since October 7,” Erdogan wrote on X, without directly referring to Nasrallah’s death.

“No person with a conscience can accept, excuse or justify such a massacre,” he added, calling for a stop to the Zionist entity’s “mindless” attempts to extend conflict across the region. Erdogan has regularly accused the Zionist entity of genocide throughout the devastating Gaza war. – Agencies