Iran’s Khamenei: Hamas and Hezbollah resistance means ‘defeat’ for Israel

Khamenei said groups backed by Tehran have managed to increasingly repel Israel over nearly four decades in Gaza and Lebanon

By Maziar Motamedi

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said the fact that Hamas and Hezbollah are still fighting in Gaza and Lebanon signifies a defeat for Israel.

Israel wished to uproot Hamas but “massacred people, showed its ugly face to the whole world, proved its malice, condemned and isolated itself”, he told a gathering of the top clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, on Thursday.

The Iranian leader said Israel believed it could silence the Palestinian resistance by assassinating its top leaders, but “Hamas keeps fighting and this means defeat for the Zionist regime”.

Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed on July 31 in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Beirut in September.

Khamenei said for nearly 40 years, Hezbollah has driven Israel back from Lebanese territory in many incidents, including from Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, and ultimately from most of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has transformed from “a small group” of fighters to a “massive organisation” that has such power to turn back an opponent that is comprehensively backed by the “likes of America’s presidents”, he added.

Khamenei said people, including some inside Lebanon, are undermining Hezbollah, thinking it has been weakened after the killing of many of its top political and military leadership.

“They are wrong, they are delusional, Hezbollah is strong and is fighting,” he said. “The organisation, with its men, its spiritual power and its will, is present. The enemy has not been able to overcome it.”

The comments come days after the Iranian leader promised a “tooth-crushing response” to Israel and the United States for the Israeli air raids against multiple Iranian provinces on October 26.

Washington has warned against what would become a third major Iranian attack on Israel, transferring advanced missile defence batteries and soldiers operating them to Israel.

The US Army has also significantly added to its military capabilities in the region, bringing in strategic bomber aircraft and fighter jets, missile batteries and warships.

But officials with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian army have been touting their looming attack.

In the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, the IRGC continues to advance with a large-scale military operation aimed at hitting the Jaish al-Adl armed separatist group, which it views as a “terrorist” group with links to Israel.

The operation was launched after Jaish al-Adl killed 10 members of Iranian armed forces last month.

Jaish al-Adl announced on Wednesday that 12 of its members, including two commanders, were killed in joint air strikes by Iran and Pakistan while four more were wounded. The attack came after Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited Islamabad.

Meanwhile, the Iranian government has suggested that it had prepared for the potential re-election of Donald Trump as US president, and was not too concerned by his victory.

“The election of the United States president does not have a clear link with us. The overall policies of the US and the Islamic republic are fixed and will not significantly change with a change of individuals,” government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

She also promised that the re-election of Trump, who imposed the harshest-ever US sanctions on Iran from 2018 that remain in effect today, will not impact the livelihoods of Iranians.

The Iranian national currency, the rial, fell to new lows of more than 700,000 to the US dollar after Trump’s victory.