Iran’s new President Masoud Pezeshkian issued a stern warning to Israel on Monday, urging the country to refrain from attacking Lebanon as tensions escalate over a deadly rocket strike in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. The strike, blamed on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, killed 12 youths on Saturday. Pezeshkian, during a phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, asserted that Israel would face severe consequences for any attack on Lebanon. He claimed Israel’s actions violated international laws and frameworks, accusing the nation of committing crimes against Palestinians.
Israel, after vowing to retaliate for the strike, has accused Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement of responsibility, a claim the militant group denies. The strike, which targeted a football field in Majdal Shams, a Druze Arab town in the Golan Heights, has further inflamed tensions between Israel and Lebanon. Hezbollah has engaged in near-daily cross-border fire with Israel in support of Hamas, since the Palestinian militant group launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7th, sparking the current war in the Gaza Strip.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani echoed the president’s sentiment, warning Israel that any new military adventures in Lebanon could lead to unforeseen consequences and escalate instability, insecurity, and war in the region. Kanani accused Israel of falsely blaming Hezbollah, attempting to divert public attention from its own crimes in the Gaza Strip. He criticized Israel’s lack of moral authority to comment on the deaths in Majdal Shams, as Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and later annexed it, a move the United Nations does not recognize. Iran, which does not recognize Israel, has made support for the Palestinian cause a central focus of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The Islamic republic has openly praised Hamas’s October 7th attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, but denies any involvement in the event.
