Amid rising tension across the Middle East, the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader has embarked on a high-profile promotion of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
On Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei’s website posted a “never before seen” photo of the Supreme Leader alongside Nasrallah, who has headed the Lebanese organization since 1992.
The photograph appears to have been taken in Khamenei’s office. Significantly, the other figure is Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the elite Qods Force, the overseas branch of the Revolutionary Guards.
Nasrallah’s public appearances in Iran have been limited since a 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The photograph will be the inaugural cover of the magazine Massir (the Path) from the Supreme Leader’s website, which has posted extracts from a “five-hour interview” with Nasrallah.
The site features about a dozen photos of Nasrallah “during an exclusive discussion” with the Supreme Leader’s staff.
Iran has supported Hezbollah since its formation in southern Lebanon in 1985. The links have been elevated in recent years amid Hezbollah’s battles with Israel, and with both Tehran and Hezbollah propping up the Assad regime in Syria.
Israel has been carrying out airstrikes against Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria. In August, an Israeli drone hit Hezbollah facilities in southern Beirut — damaging a media office according to Hezbollah, and a missile support site according to the Israelis.
Iran Daily, August 30: Israel’s Warning to Lebanon — No Tehran Missile-Production Facilities
Another Warning to Israel
The Revolutionary Guards Deputy Commander for Operations, Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan, issued Tehran’s latest warning, “If Israel makes a strategic mistake, it has to collect bits and pieces of Tel Aviv from the lower depths of the Mediterranean Sea.”
In an interview with the Tasnim news agency, Nilforoushan said Tehran kept its opponents off guard because “Iranian armed forces do not play according to the rules in their strategic depth which is as wide as West Asia”.
He continued, with an implicit reference to Hezbollah, “Iran has encircled Israel from all four sides.” After a conflict, “Nothing will be left of Israel.”
In August, Revolutionary Guards commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami proclaimed, “The enemy is well aware that any new war may expose the Zionist regime to full-scale threat and irreversible collapse.”
Iran Daily, August 9: Revolutionary Guards — War May Mean Israel’s “Irreversible Collapse”
