Iran’s acting Foreign Minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, has called Iran’s proxy terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon an “anchor of stability and peace in the region” while the militia continues to bombard Israel’s northern towns.
Calling the group, designated by countries including the UK and US the “Islamic Resistance”, he lauded the actions which have seen well over 3,000 drones, rockets and missiles launched towards Israel since Iran-backed Hamas launched its invasion on Israel on October 7. Over 100,000 people in Israel’s north have been displaced by the conflict and similar numbers from southern Lebanon.
In his first international visit following the sudden death of President Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash last month, Bagheri arrived in Lebanon on Monday.
Hezbollah, Iran’s biggest and most powerful proxy, funded, trained and armed by the regime, continues its daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces amidst the ongoing Gaza war, the conflict on Israel’s northern border its worst since the second Lebanon war.
Bagheri Kani’s visit marks the importance of Lebanon in Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’, the collective name used to describe its proxies fighting Iran’s archenemies, the US and Israel. With tens of thousands of militants and over 120,000 missiles ready to fire at Israel, Hezbollah remains Iran’s greatest proxy project to date, a pet project of the Supreme Leader.
Hezbollah has supported Hamas since the invasion of October 7, along with Iran’s proxies in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Gaza, with missiles fired towards all of Israel’s borders. In a single day, around 3,000 Hamas terrorists killed at least 1,200 mostly civilians and took around 250 more hostage to the strip.
Israel’s relentless retaliatory attacks have seen over 36,000 killed in Gaza, according to Hamas, Israel claiming 14,000 or more terrorists have been killed in the operation.
