Iran’s Khamenei vows revenge over Nasrallah’s killing

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah would be avenged and other militants would continue his path in fighting Israel.

“(Nasrallah) was not an individual. He was a path and a school of thought and the path will be continued,” Khamenei said in a statement read on State television, in which he announced five days of mourning in Iran. “The blood of the martyr shall not go unavenged,” he said.

Khamenei, in an earlier statement issued after the Israeli army said it had killed Nasrallah, said: “The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront,” State media reported.

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 Israeli strikes on south Beirut on Friday. 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian blamed Nasrallah’s killing partly on the United States, which has long supplied Israel with advanced weapons.