After the death of Hezbollah chief Nasrallah, there are fears of retaliation in the Middle East. Iran calls for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. Israel’s prime minister is confident of victory.
Tel Aviv/Beirut/Tehran – The situation in the Middle East is highly explosive after the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah by Israel’s army. Iran called on the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting in a letter obtained by the German Press Agency. It is uncertain when such a meeting might take place. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran against an attack on his country. “And to the Ayatollah regime I say: whoever attacks us, we attack,” Netanyahu told media representatives in Tel Aviv. “There is no place in Iran or the Middle East that Israel’s long arm cannot reach,” Netanyahu threatened.
Netanyahu speaks of a historic turning point
“These are momentous days. We are at a historic turning point,” said Israel’s head of government. The US government ordered the departure of relatives of its diplomats in Lebanon. The reason was the uncertain and unpredictable situation in Beirut, it was said. Israel committed a “blatant act of terrorist aggression against residential areas in Beirut by using US-supplied thousand-pound bunker busters,” said Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani’s letter to the most powerful UN body.
Netanyahu described the targeted killing of Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike on a suburb of the Lebanese capital as a “reckoning with a mass murderer.” Nasrallah was a kind of turbo of the “Axis of Evil” created by Iran. “He was not just any terrorist, but the terrorist par excellence,” Netanyahu said. The Hezbollah leader is guilty of murdering countless Israelis, hundreds of Americans and dozens of French people, Israel’s prime minister said.
Biden on killing Nasrallah: “Measure of justice”
US President Joe Biden called Israel’s killing of Nasrallah a “measure of justice” for the victims of its four-decade reign of terror. The United States continues to support Israel’s right to self-defense against Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed terrorist groups, Biden said in a statement. The USA’s goal remains the de-escalation of the conflicts in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon through diplomatic channels.
“As long as Nasrallah was alive, he would have quickly restored the (military) capabilities that we took away from Hezbollah,” Netanyahu continued. “Its elimination will accelerate the return of our residents to their homes in the north.” Since the beginning of the Gaza war almost a year ago, Hezbollah has been shelling northern Israel almost daily. As a result, around 60,000 residents of towns near the border had to flee to other parts of Israel. Hezbollah is acting in solidarity with the Islamist Hamas in Gaza and had declared before Nasrallah’s death that it would only stop the attacks if there was a ceasefire there.
Netanyahu now argued that after the killing of Hezbollah’s general secretary, Hamas would be more willing to release the hostages kidnapped from Israel in the terrorist attack by Hamas and other extremist groups on October 7, 2023. “The more (Hamas leader Jihia al-) Sinwar sees that Nasrallah will not come to his aid, the greater the chances of our hostages being returned,” Netanyahu said.
National mourning in Lebanon and Iran
Lebanon’s government ordered national mourning from Monday to Wednesday following Nasrallah’s death. Without a boss and after killing almost the entire upper management level, it is unclear who in Hezbollah could now give command, including in the event of further attacks on Israel. Hezbollah will probably wait for instructions from Iran. Under religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he is the actual protective force and the militia’s most important supporter.
Khamenei ordered national mourning after Nasrallah’s death. Among those killed in Friday’s airstrike was Iranian Brigadier General Abbas Nilforushan, the Revolutionary Guard’s deputy commander for operations. It is unclear whether Iran will now come to Hezbollah’s aid. The new Iranian government under President Massoud Peseschkian is struggling with a severe economic crisis and is striving for a rapprochement with the West. Although Iran’s military leadership announced retaliation after the killing of Hamas foreign chief Ismail Haniya in Tehran at the end of July, this has not yet materialized.
Protests in Iraq near US embassy
In Iraq, hundreds of supporters of Shiite parties called for retaliation against Israel for the killing of Nasrallah. They gathered in Baghdad at the entrance to the so-called Green Zone, where the US embassy and government buildings are located, eyewitnesses reported. Security forces cordoned off the area to prevent the Green Zone from being stormed. Shiite parties and militias supported by Iran have great influence in Iraq. Hezbollah helped them from the 2000s by training fighters to increase their attacks on US targets and expand Iran’s influence in the country.
Germany, the USA and many other Western countries are urgently calling on their citizens to leave Lebanon. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock described the situation in the Middle East after Nasrallah’s death as “extremely dangerous”. In the ARD program “Report from Berlin” the Green politician said: “There is a threat of destabilization of the whole of Lebanon. And that is in no way in the interest of Israel’s security.”
UN: Tens of thousands fled to Syria
Authorities say more than 1,600 people have been killed in Lebanon, including around 300 women and children, since fighting broke out between Hezbollah and the Israeli military almost a year ago. A large number died in Israeli attacks in the past ten days. According to the UN, more than 50,000 people have fled to civil war-torn Syria. In coordination with both governments, relief operations are underway to help everyone in need, said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, on X. In addition, more than 200,000 people in Lebanon are internally displaced.
The Israeli military has urged people in parts of Lebanon to stay away from Hezbollah facilities and seek safety. The warning applies to residents of the Bekaa Valley in the east of the country, the southern suburbs of Beirut and southern Lebanon. However, many people in the areas controlled by Hezbollah often do not know which buildings are used by the militia.
Meanwhile, warning sirens wailed again at night in northern Israel. Rocket alarms had also been triggered again in the center of the country. In Tel Aviv, warning sirens sounded in response to a missile from Yemen, the army said. It was therefore intercepted before it reached Israeli territory. dpa
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