Iran Vows Response to Guards Deputy Commander Killing in Lebanon

A demonstrator stands in the rain holding up a picture of late Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed by an Israeli air strike the previous day, during an anti-Israel protest in Tehran's Palestine Square on September 28, 2024. (AFP)
A demonstrator stands in the rain holding up a picture of late Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed by an Israeli air strike the previous day, during an anti-Israel protest in Tehran's Palestine Square on September 28, 2024. (AFP)
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Iran Vows Response to Guards Deputy Commander Killing in Lebanon

A demonstrator stands in the rain holding up a picture of late Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed by an Israeli air strike the previous day, during an anti-Israel protest in Tehran's Palestine Square on September 28, 2024. (AFP)
A demonstrator stands in the rain holding up a picture of late Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah who was killed by an Israeli air strike the previous day, during an anti-Israel protest in Tehran's Palestine Square on September 28, 2024. (AFP)

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday that the killing by Israel of an Iranian Revolutionary Guards deputy commander in Beirut was a "horrible crime" that would not go unanswered.

Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan was killed in the Israeli strikes on Beirut on Friday in which Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah also died.

"There is no doubt that this horrible crime committed by the Zionist regime (Israel) will not go unanswered," Araqchi said in a statement addressed to the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Hossein Salami.

Earlier on Sunday, Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said that Iran-aligned armed groups would carry on confronting Israel with Tehran's help following the killing of Nasrallah, Iranian state media reported.

An alliance known as the Axis of Resistance, built up over decades with Iranian support, includes the Palestinian group Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Yemen's Houthis, and various Shiite armed groups in Iraq and Syria.

"We will not hesitate to go to any level in order to help the resistance," Qalibaf said.

He also issued a warning to the United States.

"The US is complicit in all of these crimes and...has to accept the repercussions," he said.

Iran's Vice-President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif, asked about Nasrallah's assassination, told state media on Sunday Iran would react at an appropriate time of its choosing against Israel.



Thousands In Iran Protest Nasrallah's Killing

Supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah carry his pictures as they gather in Sidon, following his killing in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, Lebanon September 28, 2024. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo
Supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah carry his pictures as they gather in Sidon, following his killing in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, Lebanon September 28, 2024. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo
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Thousands In Iran Protest Nasrallah's Killing

Supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah carry his pictures as they gather in Sidon, following his killing in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, Lebanon September 28, 2024. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo
Supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah carry his pictures as they gather in Sidon, following his killing in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday, Lebanon September 28, 2024. REUTERS/Ali Hankir/File Photo

Thousands of people have gathered across Iran to protest the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike.
State TV aired footage of protests in several major cities on Sunday. At Iran’s parliament, lawmakers chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
Iran helped establish Hezbollah in the 1980s and has provided the Lebanese militant group with sophisticated weaponry and training.
The airstrike that killed Nasrallah on Friday also killed Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, a senior officer in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The Guard officially confirmed Nilforushan’s death on its website Sunday, after it had been widely reported in state media the day before, The Associated Press said.