Israel killing of Hezbollah chief Nasrallah sparks condemnation

PARIS – Israel’s foes vowed revenge on Sept 28 after Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah announced its long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah was

killed in an Israeli air strike

on Beirut suburbs.

World powers also

warned of the killing’s potential repercussions,

with the spectre of all-out war looming over the Middle East.

Iran

First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref warned Israel that Nasrallah’s death would “bring about their destruction”, Iran’s Isna news agency quoted him as saying.

The Foreign Ministry of Iran, which finances and arms Hezbollah, said Nasrallah’s work will continue after his death.

“His sacred goal will be realised in the liberation of Quds (Jerusalem), God willing,” ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani posted on social media platform X.

Iran’s Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced five days of public mourning.

Russia

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said “we decisively condemn the latest political murder carried out by Israel” and urged it to “immediately cease military action” in Lebanon.

Israel would “bear full responsibility” for the “tragic” consequences the killing could bring to the region, the ministry added in a statement.

Germany

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told ARD TV that the killing “threatens destabilisation for the whole of Lebanon”, which “is in no way in Israel’s security interest”.

United Nations

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was “gravely concerned by the dramatic escalation of events in Beirut in the last 24 hours”.

Hamas

Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose

unprecedented Oct 7 attack on Israel

sparked the devastating war in Gaza that drew in fellow Iran-backed groups, including Hezbollah, called Nasrallah’s killing “a cowardly terrorist act”.

“We condemn in the strongest terms this barbaric Zionist aggression and targeting of residential buildings,” Hamas said in a statement.

Palestinian Authority

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas offered his “deep condolences” to Lebanon for the deaths of Nasrallah and civilians, who “fell as a result of the brutal Israeli aggression”, according to a statement from his office.

Iraq

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani condemned in a statement Israel’s “shameful attack”, calling it “a crime that shows the Zionist entity has crossed all the red lines”.

Syria

Israel “confirms through this despicable aggression, once again... its barbarism and wanton disregard for all international standards and laws”, said a Syrian Foreign Ministry statement carried by state news agency Sana.

Houthis

The Iran-backed Yemeni rebels, who have been

firing on ships in the Red Sea

in solidarity with Hamas, said in a statement that “the martyrdom of Hassan Nasrallah will increase the flame of sacrifice, the heat of enthusiasm, the strength of resolve” against Israel.

Turkey

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country maintains diplomatic relations with Israel but who has been a sharp critic of its offensive in Gaza, said on X that Lebanon was being subjected to a “genocide”, without referring directly to Nasrallah.

US Republicans

Leading Republicans in the House of Representatives welcomed the end of a “reign of bloodshed, oppression and terror” by “one of the most brutal terrorists on the planet”.

“Justice was delivered for Israeli victims of his heinous crimes, their families, and the United States”, while President Joe Biden’s administration should stop calling for a ceasefire and its diplomatic pressure on Israel, they added in a statement. AFP