Hezbollah pledges to confront US and Israeli strikes on Iran, organising rallies and mourning ceremonies for slain leader Khamenei while Lebanon seeks to avoid war.

BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem vowed on Sunday that his Lebanese militant group would confront the United States and Israel over their ongoing strikes on its key backer Iran.

“We will undertake our duty of confronting the aggression,” Qassem said in a statement, adding that his movement would not leave “the field of honour and resistance.”

The group is organising a gathering on Sunday afternoon in its stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburb in a show of support for its ally Iran, though it has so far not taken military action since the US and Israel began striking Iran on Saturday.

Hezbollah also called on mosques to recite the Koran and organise mourning ceremonies to mark the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, both in the Beirut suburb and other areas of Lebanon where the group wields influence.

Khamenei was killed on Saturday as the United States and Israel jointly launched a barrage of ongoing strikes on the Islamic republic.

Qassem, who succeeded Hassan Nasrallah as the group’s chief following his death in an Israeli strike in September 2024, on Sunday said the assassination of Khamenei and other Iranian officials was “the height of crime.”

Having emerged heavily battered from its own war with Israel, Hezbollah did not intervene on behalf of Iran during its 12-day war with Israel last June.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Saturday rejected the prospect of his country being dragged into war following the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

 The Sun Malaysia